The Path Unexplored
by Bionichute
Summary: Weird things are happening in Zootopia. Odd doppelgangers of our favorite duo showing up is bad enough, but suddenly Judy completely vanishes, and Nick is left to solve a series of bizarre murders with much more unruly rabbit. Judy, however, is thrown into a much darker world, left to fend for herself. And the hands of dark forces will make sure it only gets stranger.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – Traffic Music**

"Alright, where the hell are we?"

The rabbit hopped out of the dirty white van, and into the snow. It was freezing, but luckily he was wearing thick, black clothes.

"How should I know?" His fox partner said, also hopping out of the van. The rabbit pulled the cloth mask off of his face, and threw it to the snow. The fox quickly did the same, except she stuffed it into her pocket instead of throwing it to the ground. "From the looks of, we're in Tundra Town." She continued.

She looked through the van, and sniffed a vile smell coming from the rabbit. "Damn it, are you smoking again?" She asked, walking around the van to him.

"It's what I do when I'm stressed." He responded, cigarette in his mouth.

"I thought bunnies tapped their feet when they were stressed." The fox questioned.

"I do that too." He motioned down to his rapidly tapping foot.

She smacked the cigarette out of his mouth, it fizzling out upon touching the snow. "Thanks a lot." The rabbit said sarcastically.

"That shit's unhealthy for you." The fox said, stamping on the cig. "I told you to quit."

"I was going to after we did the job." He explained. "But I guess that's not happening."

"Why?" The fox asked. "We have the money, and we're miles away from the cops."

"Do you not think it's weird that we somehow landed in Tundra Town?" The rabbit asked, frustrated. "Last I recall, we were falling off a cliff in the mountains."

"I've learned to not question when good things happen to you." The fox responded, getting back into the van. "C'mon, we're only a ways off from Big's."

The rabbit sighed. "Guess you're right." He said, climbing into the van. "Better get this to him."

He started the van up, and it drove through the snow and onto the nearby street.

* * *

"UUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."

"Stop it."

"UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."

"I said stop it!"

Judy wasn't sure what was worse, the fact that they were being relegated to traffic officers, the fact they were assigned to Tundra Town, the part of the city with the lowest speeding rates, or Nick's exaggerated boredom. She knew he wasn't really that bored, he was just trying to get a rise out of her.

And it was working.

"Listen, you knew we were going to have to get boring assignments eventually." She explained. "It's not like we haven't done traffic duty before."

"Yeah, but in Tundra Town!?" He yelled. "This place is always so boring!"

"It's not that boring." She shrugged. "Remember the time we stopped the guy who was smuggling drugs in ice cream?"

"Yeah." Nick said, remembering back. "Licked him real good. But that was on an actual case, not traffic duty."

"I'm sure something will happen!" She assured. "Maybe someone will come speeding by right now!"

She watched the traffic pass by the billboard they were hidden behind, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.

She slumped back in the car seat. This was getting really boring, especially after four hours of nothing.

She decided to try again. "Maybe riiiight… now!"

Still nothing out of the ordinary.

"See, Fluff?" Nick said. "Absolutely nothing."

Then, a dirty white van drove by. Judy watched it closely, it certainly seemed suspicious, but…

Wait a second…

"EXPIRED LICENSE!" She yelled, pointing towards the van. She stepped on the gas, turned the sirens on, and signaled for the van to pull over.

It pulled over, and they parked, the two officers walking over to the driver's seat. The window rolled down slowly, revealing a rather rough looking bunny behind the wheel, and a rather cleanly fox in the passenger's seat.

"What is it, officer?" The rabbit asked in a rather apathetic tone, arm hanging out of the van.

"Do you realize you were driving with an expired license, right?" Judy asked.

The other rabbit gained a confused look. "What!?" He blurted out. "I had it changed last week!"

"It says it expired last week, actually." Judy pointed out.

The other rabbit shook his head, and he got out of the van. He stomped to the back of the car, and looked at the plate. It said it was supposed to expire next year.

"I don't get it," He asked. "It's 2016, right?"

"No, it's 2017." Judy corrected.

"I've heard some dumb excuses for driving with an expired license, but that's probably the dumbest." Nick stated.

The rabbit looked at his feet, and shrugged. "Sorry officers, I'll go get it changed right away." He stated, sounding sorry. That sorry soon turned to a smirk, as he leaped up and kicked Judy right in the skull, knocking her back into the snow.

He ran back into the van. "What the hell are you doing!?" The fox inside yelled at him.

"We're getting the fuck outta here!" He yelled, slamming on the gas, and speeding into traffic.

Judy got up, rubbing her head, and the two rushed back to the cruiser. They turned the sirens on again, and sped after them.

She grabbed the radio. "We are in pursuit of an unmarked white van on the Tundra Town highway, license plate A7DH-9W76, expired. The driver assaulted me when I pointed his license was expired, definitely violent."

The cars swerved through traffic. Judy made sure to not slam into anyone, but the rabbit in the van seemed to be swerving into cars on purpose. Despite appearances, the van seemed very sturdy. The chase headed down the highway, and down into the main part of the city.

As they entered the downtown, the van swerved to a stop, and then sped off in a different direction, the two officers unprepared for the sudden turn. They drove past the turn, and Judy quickly spun the wheel, pulling the cruiser onto a U-turn on the icy road, nearly causing them to spin out.

Luckily, they managed to turn successfully, and continued chasing after the van. Their attempt at gaining ground on the officers was also successful, meaning they had to speed up. On the slippery road, this became tough, especially when they were also trying to avoid cars.

In a few minutes, they managed to catch up, and bumped the van in its back bumper. Nick rolled down the window, and pulled out a bullhorn. "STOP THE VEHICLE!" He yelled through the horn, leaning out the window. "YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!"

Unfortunately, the rabbit seemed to comply. The van immediately stopped, the two vehicles crashing together. Fortunately, the air bags came up, and the two were safe – aside from the pounding in their skulls.

Judy pushed the air bag out of the way, and spotted the two criminals running away from the van. She pulled Nick out of the cruiser, and started running after them.

"We are now in pursuit on foot, we are on Siberian Drive!" She yelled into her radio as they chased them down an alleyway.

"Now we're in an alley." Nick started, nearly out of breath. "A perfect place for two officers to be shanked!"

They ran down the alley, only to find a brick wall at the end, and the criminals nowhere in sight. The only things were a few trash cans, and a dumpster. The approached the back wall. "Where did they go?" Judy asked, looking at the wall. There was no way anyone, not even a bunny, could get over it.

"Maybe its like in Harry Potter." Nick jokingly suggested, tapping at the wall. "Maybe they're wizard criminals."

Judy gave him a look, but then turned around when they heard a trash can fall over. They approached the tipped over can, the lid now on the ground, and frozen trash spilled onto the pavement.

As they looked at the trash can, Nick felt something land on him and cover his eyes. He let out a yell, and stumbled around in the dark.

It was the rabbit, who was wrapped around Nick's head, covering his eyes with his paws. As Judy watched, she heard a loud thump to the ground. She turned around and saw the fox, twirling a small pocket knife.

She jabbed it at the rabbit officer, who leaped back from the strike. She continued to swipe at her, the trained rabbit dodging each strike.

Nick grabbed the rabbit on his head, and tossed him into a wall, where he slid down onto his head. The rabbit got up quickly, and leaped at the fox with a flying kick, which Nick quickly ducked under.

The fox swiped at Judy again, but she quickly grabbed the fox's arm, preventing the fox from stabbing her. "Why are you doing this?" She asked, struggling to keep the blade from cutting her.

The rabbit leaped at Nick again, this time actually landing the kick on the snout. He recoiled in pain. "It was just an expired plate!" He yelled. "I wouldn't even do this kind of stuff for that!"

"Oh yeah, an expired plate." The rabbit said sarcastically. "We know what you're really after, coppers."

"What are you talking about!?" Judy yelled, pushing the fox away.

"How do you not know!?" The fox said, a bit angry. "We just did it, like, two hours ago!"

"Yeah, did you just have your radios off or something?" The rabbit asked, leaping up and kicking Nick in the face again. "We robbed the Cliffside Bank!"

"You WHAT!?" Judy yelled, turning to the rabbit.

"Great, you just blabbed it again!" The fox yelled to her partner.

He slapped himself in the forehead. "Sorry, but how do you not know!?"

"I feel like we would have heard about that." Nick stated, silently pulling out his Taser.

"Yeah, we're two of the best officers on the force!" Judy stated proudly. "Officers Hopps and Officer Wilde!"

"Hopps?" The rabbit said, sounding confused. "But-" He suddenly began twitching, and fell to the ground. Nick had shot his Taser into the rabbit.

The female fox dropped her knife, and raised her hands to the air.

Judy pulled out a pair of handcuffs, and snapped them around the fox's wrists. Nick slapped a pair around the rabbit's wrists as well, and lifted the unconscious bunny over his shoulders.

"Officer Hopps here." Judy said into her radio. "We have apprehended two criminals, who claim to have robbed Cliffside Bank. Our cruiser was wrecked in the chase, so we need someone to come pick us up."

"Alrighty then!" Clawhauser said over the radio. "Officer McHorn should be nearby, I'll send him to pick you guys up."

"Alright, we have a bit of time." Nick said, turning to the fox criminal. "Who, exactly, are you two?"

"We're the ones who should be asking you that!" She yelled, obviously confused. The officers looked at each other, equally confused. Suddenly, the rabbit on Nick's shoulder began to kick him.

Nick dropped the rabbit in surprise. He fell onto his back, and quickly leaped onto his feet. "Wow, never seen someone recover from a Taser that quickly." Nick said, fairly impressed. "Are you shock resistant or something?"

"Please," The rabbit scoffed. "I've had worse shocks than that before."

Suddenly, they heard a car park at the entrance of the alley. McHorn stepped out, and stomped down the hall. He snorted, and looked at both pairs of foxes and bunnies. "Huh, didn't know you two had siblings." He paused for a second. "Well, I didn't know Wilde had a sister."

"What?" Nick and the female fox said at the same time. They then looked at each other. "I don't have any siblings." Nick said.

"Huh, coulda sworn you two were twins."

"Oh, are you saying all foxes look the same?" The female fox chided. "It's just like you officers."

"Oh, uh, sorry." McHorn apologized, tipping his police cap. "Didn't mean to offend you."

The fox and rabbit gave each other a confused look.

"Alright, let's get you two in the car." Nick said, pushing the rabbit forward. Judy quickly followed up by pushing the fox forward. They began to head towards the oversized car, McHorn opening one of the doors, and lifting them up into the back seat. He quickly slammed the door.

The two officers climbed into the passenger seat, which was large enough to easily fit them and at least one more, smaller, officer. The seatbelt alone was too large for them.

McHorn sat in the driver seat, and adjusted his mirror to look at the two criminals in the back. "So, they claim to have robbed a bank, huh?" He asked.

Judy nodded. "We're going to interrogate them about it at the station." She explained.

"You do know there wasn't a bank robbery there today, right?" He asked.

"Yeah, that's the weird part." Nick said. "Actually, there's a lot of weird parts to these two."

"I'm going to see if we can get a full investigation on them." Judy continued. "This entire thing feels strange."

The car drove off, heading towards the station.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – Brothers & Sisters**

As it ended up, this was ending up even stranger than Judy had expected.

They had checked the license plate, but it didn't seem to actually… exist. Even stranger, over ten thousand dollars had been found in the back of the van, indicating they had actually managed to rob a bank, but it was unknown if it was Cliffside or not.

As it turned out, there hadn't been a robbery there for years, let alone one within the last twenty four hours.

She entered the dark interrogation room, and sat down in front of the rabbit. She stared at him for a few minutes, having noticed something strange once she managed to get a good look at him.

McHorn was right, they looked almost exactly alike.

His eyes were the exact same shade of lavender, they looked to be around the same height, and she even managed to see similar – no, exact matching fur patterns on him.

She cleared her throat. "Alright, let's start with the absolute basics." She began. "What is your name?"

"Judas." He stated.

"Judas, alright." She wrote it down on a notepad. "And what were you doing with ten thousand dollars in your van?"

"What do you think?"

"Yes, yes, stealing it, I know." She sarcastically finished for him. "But what were you doing with it?"

He sighed. "We were delivering it to one of Mr. Big's lackeys."

"Mr. Big?" She said, surprised. "I didn't realize he hired lowly thieves."

"Who you calling lowly!?" He snapped, slamming his paws on the table. "I'm one of the best criminals in Zootopia!"

"And you got caught. Truly the greatest criminal." She mocked. She was starting to sound a bit like Nick at this point.

"I got contacts, I can get out of prison no problem!" He bragged. "And enough of this, I have some questions I want to ask you!"

"Like what?" She asked.

"What are you doing stealing my name?"

She looked at him, puzzled by the statement. "You mean Hopps?" She said. "I was born with it."

"There's only one Hopps in Zootopia, and that's me!" He yelled, pounding his chest as best he could with cuffed hands. "The rest of them are-"

"In Bunnyburrow?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I…" She looked around, a bit dumbfounded. "I grew up there."

"And we share the same last name?" He looked at her, equally puzzled. "How have we never met before?"

"That certainly is an odd coincidence." She admitted, writing this all down, with large question marks to symbolize her confusion. "But since you're a criminal, I'm not entirely sure I believe you."

"I cannot tell a lie." He stated, crossing hi heart. "It's one of my character flaws."

"We'll see when the paw print scans I ordered identify who you really are."

* * *

Nick walked into the interrogation room, and sat down in front of the female fox. "Alright, I would say whose good cop and bad cop, but since good cop isn't here, I guess I'm just cop cop."

The female fox snickered. "That's a good one."

"Finally, someone who appreciates my sense of humor. Alright, what's your name?"

"Nicole." She said. "Nicole Wilde."

"Ha ha, very funny." He said back. "I'm the one with the jokes here."

"That wasn't a joke."

He glared at her. "So your name is actually Wilde?"

"Yep!"

"Well that can't be right." He said. "I don't have any siblings."

"Neither do I!"

"So, this is a weird coincidence, huh." He stated, leaning back in his chair. "Didn't realize Wilde was such a common name, guess it really is a small world after all."

"I didn't know they let foxes be officers now." Nicole said.

"Well, I'm the first, so the door's completely open."

She rested her head on the table. "Man that would've been nice…"

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Uh, alright." He scratched his head. "So, what were you and your partner doing with the money?"

"Jude and I were dropping it off at one of Mr. Big's drop off points." She explained, rather solemnly. "It was gonna be our last job before we retired."

"Well, now you get to retire in prison." He said, cheerfully. That joke didn't seem to get her.

He thought to himself. Nicole and Jude, another weird coincidence. He eyed her. They looked remarkably similar, the only difference being that she had slightly longer fur on the back of her head. But aside from that, height, eye color, even how she moved, reminded Nick of himself.

"Well, that's all we have time for today." He started. "You just… stay here, I guess."

He exited the room, leaving Nicole alone. Down the hall, he saw Judy pacing around. "So, you get anything, Carrots?"

"I mean, I got him to mention Mr. Big, but other than that, nothing new." She said. "Something about this is bugging me."

"Me too." Nick admitted, rubbing his neck. "There's something wrong here, but I can't put my finger on it."

"HOPPS! WILDE!" An angry voice yelled from down the hall. They slowly turned to face Bogo, who was stomping towards them.

"Oh, hey chief!" Judy said meekly. "Did our, uh, paw print scans come in?"

"Indeed they did." He said. "And I don't entirely appreciate your misuse of police resources. Unless you're TRYING to go to jail."

"What are you talking about?" Nick asked.

"Why don't you see for yourselves." He handed them two sheets of paper.

They stared at the files, dumbfounded. It was their files. "Sir, I'm fairly certain I had those two criminals' paws scanned!" Judy explained. She was sure she had done it correctly.

"Well, that's what the computers gave us, and the computers don't make mistakes." Bogo angrily said. "We'll scan their paws again later, for now, you two are dismissed." He pointed towards the exit.

Judy's ears lowered, and they two solemnly walked out of the station.

* * *

"Are you sure we should be doing this?"

"Don't worry," The coyote started, lighting a cigarette. He wore rather casual, dirty clothes, and his fur was ragged and matted "They should be able to clean it up after we've had our fun."

The panther walked over. "I doubt that." He retorted. The panther wore a rather proper suit, which he straightened. "The Cleaners aren't entirely known for being precise."

"Well, that'll just make it more interesting, huh?" The coyote said, flicking his cig. "Besides, its not like the big guys will care. They never did all the other times."

"Well, something like this has only happened once before." The panther exclaimed. "We only barely managed to fix it, remember?"

"Who cares?" The coyote said, dropping the cigarette to the roof, and squashing it. "That guy wasn't even nearly as fun as this has been."

"I just feel like something is going to go wrong." The panther said, sounding worried. "Couldn't we have picked a more… similar world, at least?"

"C'mon, where's the fun in doing the same thing over and over again?" The coyote chuckled, turning to his partner. "We need to branch out, y'know?"

The panther sighed. "Whatever. But you better hope the Cleaners manage to fix this before something goes horribly wrong."

There was a sudden scream in the night, catching both of the creature's attention. It quickly faded, and the panther rubbed his temples in frustration.

"Doesn't it always go horribly wrong?" The coyote chuckled.

* * *

Judy laid in her bed, completely unable to sleep. The entire day was bugging her. After she had gotten home, she had checked – there had only ever been one Hopps family in Bunnyburrow. That "Judas" had to have been faking it… but he seemed so sincere, so genuinely confused that he had the same name.

She turned in bed. There were so many other questions. Why had the scans brought in their own files?

Why was there over ten thousand dollars found in the back of their car?

Why was their license a year out of date? How did they manage to get away with that for so long?

What in the world was going on?

She sat up, and looked around the tiny apartment. She had managed to gussy it up a bit over the last year, newspaper clippings from their various cases, hanged pictures of her and Nick. It was starting to feel somewhat like a home, at least.

One of the few new additions was a sleek laptop she had managed to get. It wasn't much, but it was good for keeping her entertained when she was bored. The apartment had good wi-fi, too, probably one of the reasons it was still in business.

She decided to go onto the internet for a bit, maybe put on a show while she tried to fall asleep. Something to keep her mind off today. She hopped down from her bed, and headed towards the desk.

She froze as she passed the window.

There was something outside.

It was big. Something she had never seen before, and it was resting on the roof of the building next to her. She couldn't make anything out in the blackness of the night, the thing was entirely black. But she could see it moving.

What might have been its skin ended in rippling, cloth-like strands, which moved around the creature's lower half without any sort of wind blowing it. It had a, elongated neck, which appeared to only end in a stump. But the stump had the one thing she could easily make out.

A horrid, bloody, piercing red eye.

And it was staring directly at her.

She held her breath, and remained completely still. A primitive, ancestral fear gripped her as he thing continued to stare. To her horror, the thing's skin began to stretch out, forming what looked like tattered bat wings. With a single flap, it rushed towards the window.

There was a crash, and she blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – Absent Friends**

Nick strolled into the station, coffee in hand. He was ready for Judy to do her usual routine, chewing him out for being late (Despite him always showing up half an hour early), and them to engage in their usual witty repartee.

Instead, there was nothing. She simply wasn't there.

This, of course, had the fox very worried.

He took a sip from his coffee, and walked over to the receptionist desk. At least Clawhauser was there, munching on donuts, as usual.

"Hey, spots." Nick greeted, raising his sunglasses.

"Hey, Nick!" Clawhauser replied, mouth full. "How's things going?"

"Uh, pretty alright, I guess." He said, a bit nervous. "Have you seen Judy around?" He asked. "She usually isn't this late."

"Who?"

The fox slowly raised his head in confusion. "Uh, Judy Hopps, my police partner, one of the nicest people here, lagomorph shaped?"

"Oh, you mean Jude?" Clawhauser said between donut bites. "I don't feel he'd appreciate you calling him 'Judy'."

The fox continued to stare, completely dumbfounded at the nonsense coming from Clawhauser's mouth. He was usually a bit goofy, but this was just mind rattling to him.

"And yeah, he is late ain't he?" The cheetah pointed out. "He's usually here half an hour ago."

He finally managed to spit it out.

"What the hell are you talking about!?"

The cheetah recoiled back from the yell. "You're scaring me, Nick."

He took a deep breath. "Sorry, spots." He quickly walked away, feeling incredibly self conscious from that outburst. He pulled out his phone, and dialed her number. It rang, and someone answered it, at least.

"Judy?" He asked, hopeful. "Is that you?"

"Nick?" It was her.

"Where are you?" He asked. "It's almost rollcall, and Clawhauser's acting even weirder than normal."

"Uh, I don't know." She replied.

"What does that mean?"

"I means 'I don't know where I am'!" She yelled back. "It's dark, that's all I can tell you. It's cold, so, probably in Tundra Town?"

"How did you get there?" He asked. "I thought you went to your apartment yesterday."

"Um, I can't remember." She mumbled. "Oh god, the blood…" The phone hung up.

"Judy?"

"Judy!?"

* * *

The rabbit tossed and turned in his uncomfy bed. A number of springs were broken, and the blanket was no better, it felt like it hadn't been washed in months. His eyes suddenly jolted open as he realized something strange.

Last time he checked, he was in a prison cell.

He jolted up and looked around. A tacky, tiny apartment, with an awful floral pattern wallpaper. Where the hell was he? This place looked arguably worse than the prison cell. He got out of the bed, and examined the place a bit better. There was a laptop sitting on a filthy looking desk, and hanging on the wall were a few pictures.

They showed the fox cop from the other day, with the bunny cop who stole his name. 'How overly sentimental', he thought. Now that he knew he was in her apartment, he just had to figure out why he was there.

Suddenly, his phone began to ring. He had sworn that the cops had taken it, but there was definitely something odd happening. He pulled the phone out, and the caller ID made his heart sink.

His parents, calling him?

Why would they ever do something like that after what he's done?

He took a deep breath, and answered it. The camera activated.

"Ah, I still can't get used to this thing." His father said, messing with the phone.

"I'm pretty sure it's one, Stu." His mother said.

"Mom? Dad?" He said meekly.

"Hey, how's it going, sport?" His dad greeted. "We just wanted to call you to tell you how proud we are of you."

Proud? Of him?

"We just can't believe its been almost two years since you joined the force!" His mother cheerfully continued.

"It's a real milestone for all of bunny-kind!"

"Uh, yeah." He awkwardly muttered. "Its been… real great."

"Everything okay, Jude?" His father asked, sounding a bit worried. "You're usually a lot peppier than this."

"Listen, I have to get to… work." He excused. "I love you both. Goodbye." He hung up, and shoved the phone back in his pocket. What the hell was going on? The force? He was a criminal, not an officer, why would they be proud of him?

Unless…

He quickly looked under the bed, and pulled out a suitcase. He unlatched it, revealing a police uniform, just his size. This couldn't be happening. He pulled out his wallet, which he was also sure that the police had taken, and opened it.

There it was, a shiny ZPD badge, with his name on it. He started to weep in confusion. Had it finally happened? Had he gone insane? Or had the world gone insane?

The only thing he could think of was to see how long he could keep this going.

* * *

Nick desperately tried to call her again. "This number is not available", repeatedly. Did her phone break? Did it run out of battery? What happened!? Then, he heard the door slide open. He turned, hoping to see Judy. Maybe this was just a horrible prank she had set up for some reason.

His lips turned into a scowl as he saw what walked through.

It was the criminal rabbit, Judas, dressed in a police uniform. He looked unreasonably smug for someone who had walked right into the danger zone.

Nick stomped over to him, the rabbit not seeming to be threatened by the fox. He glared at him, directly in his lavender eyes. "What did you do with her?" He growled.

"What?" The rabbit replied, confused.

He pushed the rabbit back. "I'm going to figure out how you did this, and you're going right back to jail." He paused for a second. "How did you even get out of jail?" He asked.

The rabbit shrugged, nonchalantly. "I just woke up in the bunny cop's apartment." He answered. "What, did something happen to her?"

"You stole her identity, somehow!" The fox yelled. He quickly gripped the rabbit by the shoulders. "What did you do to her!?"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Nick felt himself being lifted by the neck, specifically by Clawhauser. "What's gotten into you? You two are supposed to be partners!"

"That's not my partner!" He yelled, quickly flailing around in the cheetah's surprisingly strong grip. "He's an imposter!"

Clawhauser looked at the rabbit for a second. "It looks like Jude to me." He said, putting the fox down.

"Her name's Judy!" He cried. "She isn't this thief!" He quickly poked the rabbit between the eyes. He turned back to the chubby cheetah. "Remember when you, me, and Judy went to that Gazelle concert a few weeks back?"

The cheetah nodded. "I remember that, but I'm pretty sure it was Jude who went with us." The cheetah looked at the fox, as his jaw went slack. "Are you feeling alright, Nick? Maybe you should go to the hospital."

"I'm fine." He had decided to give up. Something weird was going on with Clawhauser, but maybe the other officers would notice. "C'mon… partner." He practically snarled the last word, much to Jude's amusement.

The two walked off towards the bullpen, leaving behind a very confused cheetah. "Man, a pred at the front desk, a lot changed in a year." Jude quietly said.

"What?" Nick said, still completely baffled at the events. "Clawhauser's been working here for years."

"Really?" Jude sounded. "Wonder why they didn't let Nicky join, then." He muttered to himself as they entered the bullpen.

As the two walked to their seat, Nick was hoping that someone, anyone, would point out the fake rabbit. Instead, they were happily greeted, as usual.

The two barely made it to their seat as Bogo entered. "Alright, we've got a lot to cover today, so let's make this quick." He eyed Nick. "No smart comments, Wilde."

The fox nodded. He wasn't entirely in the mood for joking around now. The room quickly went dark.

"We've had a series of bizarre murders around the city." He announced, the room falling instantly silent. "Around five different mammals, skinned completely, reduced to nothing…" He held up a remote, and pressed a button. There was a collective unease in the room as the first slide was shown.

It wasn't pretty. A pile of organs, in he vague shape of a mammal. No bones or muscles, just the organs and veins, laying on the ground in the exact place they would be if the animal was laying on the ground. Nick could practically smell the decay coming from the photos.

"But piles of organs." Bogo finished, trying not to look at the picture himself. "The murdered mammals consist of a weasel, a polar bear, a sloth, a pig, and a ram. We've had to do extensive research just to figure out who they were."

"Yeesh, great day for me to be a police officer, huh?" Jude joked, angering the fox a bit.

"First order, Wilde, Hopps, you will be taking the weasel." The two got up, and walked over, grabbing the case file. "I believe you have a personal connection with this one, Wilde."

"I hate to interrupt, sir, but what about the bank robbers from yesterday?" He asked, trying not to look at the one standing right next to him. "We still don't know what's going on with them, and we have one locked up."

"What are you talking about, Wilde?" Bogo asked, completely confused. "We didn't have anyone locked up yesterday."

The fox quickly shut his mouth, and looked at the equally surprised rabbit next to him. It was becoming apparent that neither of them knew what was going on.

He let out a sigh, and opened the case file. Oh great.

Weaselton.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 – Hello Cruel World**

She opened her eyes.

The best she could say was "at least it wasn't bright." It was rather the opposite in fact, pitch black. Luckily, she had good night vision, but even that barely helped. The only thing she could see was a dusty mattress she had woken up on.

Other than that, the room was completely bare. There had been windows at some point, but they had been boarded up, and the only other thing was a large, mahogany door. She tried to sit up, but a sharp pain went through her.

She placed a paw to her chest. Blood. She had horrible, gaping wounds in her. Where did they come from?

How did she even get here? Hadn't she just been in her apartment? Maybe the wounds were caused by whoever had obviously kidnapped her.

There was a vibration in her pocket. Her phone was ringing. She pulled it out, and the caller ID made her sigh in relief. It was Nick. Hopefully.

She answered.

"Judy? Is that you?"

"Nick?" She said, joyfully.

"Where are you? It's almost roll call and Clawhauser's acting weirder than normal."

"Um, I don't know." She replied, looking around.

"What does that mean?"

"It means 'I don't know where I am'!" She yelled back. She gripped her chest in pain. "It's dark, that's all I can tell you. It's also cold, so probably in Tundra Town?"

"How did you get there? I thought you went to your apartment yesterday."

"Um, I can't remember." She said, weakly. She looked at her free paw, covered in her own blood. "Oh god, the blood…" Her phone began to shake, visible sparks coming from it. She dropped it to the ground, where it completely fried itself, smoke wafting into the air.

"Oh great…" She moaned, putting her non-blood covered paw to her forehead.

There was another sound, the sound of a key turning. Someone was unlocking the door. It slammed open, revealing a large polar bear leaning through.

"Hopps." It said, with an accent. "Come, now."

"I can't move." She moaned.

The bear snorted. "Excuses." He reached in, and grabbed the rabbit, lifting her out of the room.

"That hurts, but thanks for covering the bleeding." She said, completely sincerely. The bear snorted at her.

The hall was rather well furnished compared to the inside of the room she was in. In fact, the decorations looked… familiar to her. Red wallpaper, fancy candelabras, it jogged her memory. This was Mr. Big's estate.

The bear moved over to another door, and unlocked it, rabbit still in his hand. He slammed the door open, almost accidentally, and peered in. "Wilde. Come, now."

Wilde? It had to have been Nick, but he sounded like he was at the station, so…

"Oh, Koslov." A female voice muttered from the room. "I guess Big wants to see me?" Out walked the fox criminal from the other day. Judy was suddenly very confused. "Thanks for getting me out of jail." She thanked the polar bear.

The bear looked at her, judgmentally, for a brief second, and then began to move down the hall. The fox nervously followed for a second.

"Why does Mr. Big want to see me?" Judy asked between the polar bear's clenching grasp. "I haven't seen him in over a year."

The bear let out a loud snort in response, and continued walking down the hall. She decided it was probably best to remain silent. Eventually, they entered into the darkened room, Mr. Big's desk sitting where it had been before. She also spotted the trap door, which still probably led directly to freezing water. The only difference s that there was now a large, red chair behind the desk, like Mr. Big's much smaller chair was blown up to normal size.

Koslov parked himself directly in front of the trap door. He pushed the fox onto it with his free paw. "I brought Wilde and Hopps." He stated.

"Excellent." A female voice sounded from the chair. It was familiar to Judy, but she couldn't place it. It definitely wasn't Mr. Big. "So, Nicole, Judas, what do you have to say for yourselves?"

"Uh…" The fox, Nicole, seemed confused. "Who are you?"

"Ugh, seriously?"

The chair spun around, revealing a tiny sheep sitting in it.

"Bellwether!?" The two sounded, surprised.

"Yes, yes, I can't believe the sheep's the mob boss, I've heard it a lot by this point." She dismissed. "I have no idea how you two haven't heard that I've taken over yet."

"Last time I checked, Mr. Big was still the crime lord of Tundra Town." Nicole stated. "And last time I checked was two days ago, so how'd you replace him in 48 hours?"

The sheep looked at the fox, confused. "It's been a year, Nicole." She stated. "A year since you two suddenly vanished."

The fox scratched her head, but before she could say anything, Judy managed to let something out. "Um, I'm not Judas."

"What?" The sheep said.

"Also, I'm dying."

The polar bear dropped her, and looked at his blood covered paw. The sheep leaned over, and adjusted her glasses. It wasn't Judas, this was a very clearly female rabbit. "Koslov, I thought you said you found Nicole AND Judas?"

"They look similar, I-"

"Koslov, you know we don't tolerate that kind of thinking here." She pointed to the door. "Go get this poor rabbit some bandages, gauze, whatever she needs." The bear nodded, and headed off. She hopped down from her seat, and walked over to the prone rabbit. "I'm very sorry, we usually don't accept that kind of intolerance here." She apologized. "Can I uh, get you something to drink?"

"No thanks." Judy said weakly, still bleeding on the floor.

* * *

A while later, Judy and Nicole were seated in chairs in front of the desk. Koslov, despite his massive size, had managed to surprisingly delicately wrap her wounds up. It probably came from having to deal with his much smaller bosses.

"So," Nicole started, sipping from a cup of hot chocolate. "Mr. Big is dead?"

Bellwether nodded. "After you and Judas disappeared one night, the police managed to track him down, and he was sent to prison, and shortly executed."

Judy desperately wanted to ask something. Like, "How did you get out of prison, Bellwether?" or "Who are Judas and Nicole, and why do they have our last names?" but for right now, she decided to keep quiet and process the information.

"But we were only gone for a day." Nicole said. "At least, I thought we were. And you're sure you didn't break me out of prison?"

Bellwether shook her head. "Koslov found you outside the estate last night, you were both unconscious." She looked at Judy. "Again, I am so sorry for the confusion, Miss…"

She gulped. "Uh, Judy. Judy Hopps."

Bellwether tilted her head. "So, you're related to Judas?" She asked.

"No, I barely know him." She said. "Can I ask something?"

"Sure, go ahead!"

She took a deep breath. "Have you, Dawn Bellwether, ever been to prison before?" She asked.

"Once, in my youth." She said. "They really don't like activism here."

"You protested?" She said. "What, exactly?"

"You know, tame collars, general unjust treatment of predators." She continued.

Tame collars? She couldn't help but wonder. "Pardon me if I sound a bit… lost, but what is a, uh, tame collar?"

The fox and the sheep both stared at her, dumbfounded. "How do you not know about tame collars?" Nicole asked. "I thought you were an officer."

"I've never seen anything like that in my life." She admitted. "I've only lived here for a year and a bit, is it a thing they put on prisoners?"

"Oh, sweet summer child." Bellwether sighed. "You must have been really sheltered growing up. Every predator wears a tame collar in public. It's been that way for centuries."

"But what does it do?"

"It's the most horrible pain you can imagine." Nicole interjected, suddenly turning serious. "Imagine touching an electric fence, but it just doesn't stop."

"That sounds awful." She said. "But I'm friends with a lot of predators, and I've never seen any of them wear a tame collar."

"That's odd." Bellwether admitted. "Nicole, you said Ms. Hopps here was an officer, right?"

She nodded. "She's the one who arrested me and Judas."

"Well, I've never heard of her." She admitted. "And I'm an underworld mob boss, I know everybody."

"What the hell is going on?" Judy said aloud. "First, you and your partner didn't exist," She said to Nicole. "And now Bellwether is out of prison, running a crime ring, and cares about predators!?" She got up, completely done with the situation. She stormed out of the room, or at least tried, considering how much pain she was in. It was more like a very frustrated limp.

"What's with her?" Bellwether asked, confused by the rabbit's outburst.

Nicole got up. "I dunno, but that rabbit's not gonna last a minute out there." She wasn't entirely sure why she wanted to help the rabbit, maybe it was because she somehow reminded her of Jude. She quickly ran after the rabbit.

"Alright!" Bellwether yelled as she exited. She at in silence for a minute, before slapping her head. She pressed a button on her desk. "Koslov, keep an eye on Nicole for me. Don't whack her, just keep an eye on her." She paused for a second.

"And the rabbit too, she's something else."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 – The First of the Gang to Die**

"Don't touch anything." Nick said as they got into the cruiser.

"Aw, c'mon." Jude whined. "I never get to be in the front of a police cruiser. Besides, if you don't trust me, why don't you drive?"

"Uh…" The fox shifted in his seat. "I have my reasons."

"You don't have a licence, do you?"

The fox sat in silence, as the rabbit laughed. "Hoo, how'd you even become an officer?"

"It's not that I don't have a driver's license," He started. "It's just that I don't trust myself."

"Sounds a lot like Nicole." He said, as the car pulled out of the driveway.

"That's your partner in crime, right?" Nick asked. "You know she has the same name as me, right?"

"Really?" He sounded surprised at this news. "You two related?"

"Last time I checked, nope." Nick stated. "I was hoping maybe you could tell me about her."

"I don't think she'd enjoy giving away her personal information to someone who stole her name."

He facepawed. "I didn't steal her name, alright?" He yelled. "I was born Nick Wilde, it's just some kind of weird coincidence."

"Alright, if you want me to tell you about her, you better tell me about you." He started. "Seems only fair."

The fox sighed. "Alright, when I was a kid, my dad walked out on me, leaving my mom and us alone. I had a bad experience one night, and it ultimately resulted in me becoming a con-artist. Then, Judy, my real partner, came along, and helped me fix my life up."

The rabbit remained silent for a second. "Alright, you told me, I guess I have to return the favor." He sighed "She grew up in a wealthy family, always wanted to be a cop, see, but then her dad walked out on her, left them broke. So, she tried to find some jobs to get some extra cash, but nobody trusted her cuz she was a fox. So, she turned to crime, and we became partners."

As the rabbit went through the backstory, Nick managed to piece a few odd things together. Dad suddenly going missing, institutionalized specism, turning to crime…

"That sounds a whole lot like my life story." Nick said aloud.

"Like you said, probably a coincidence." The car stopped. "Alright, so this is where this Wesselton guy got offed?"

Nick nodded. "It's Weaselton, but he probably wouldn't care anymore." The two got out of the car. "Probably more worried about where his skin went."

The two walked towards a street corner, yellow tape surrounding it. A few cops were standing around a rather small blue tarp. "So, Bogo assigned you to this one?" A hippo officer, Higgins, said, stepping forward.

"I suppose, yeah." Jude said. "So, uh, can we see the body?" He asked, sounding slightly too excited.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Higgins asked as they walked over to the tarp. "It's not exactly the prettiest sight."

"Oh, I am completely ready." Jude said, rubbing his paws. He quickly removed the tarp, the smell hitting them nearly instantly. Both tried not to puke.

"I thought he smelled bad on the inside." Nick choked out.

"Dude, he's dead, don't be rude." Higgins said.

"Trust me, I knew the guy, I have many worse things to say about him."

Jude leaned down to look at the pile of organs. "I've seen some gruesome shit, but never something like this." He looked up to the hippo. "What could've done this?"

Higgins shrugged. "It's so precise, so gruesome, no mammal on their own could've done it." He said. "Everyone's at a loss, and we can't get the remains back to forensics without wrecking them."

"And this happened to four other mammals?" Nick asked. "Poor guys."

"So, what, you're saying this was a machine?" Jude said. "You mean like, aliens?"

The fox looked around as the two began to talk. This imposter rabbit seemed unusually good at the police thing for his first day. Maybe he just watched a lot of cop dramas. As he looked around, he noticed something… odd.

On the roof of a nearby building was a black lump. It seemed to be moving around, organically, so it must've been alive, but it didn't look right. It had a craning neck, and horrid looking red eye, pointed directly at the remains of the weasel.

"You said aliens, right?" He said, bumping his elbow against the rabbit, trying not to break eye contact with the thing. "Something like that?" He pointed towards the thing.

The rabbit looked up. "What the fuck's that thing?" He said, startled.

"What thing?" Higgins said. "I don't see anything."

"How can you not see the horrible pulsating black blob!?" Nick yelled. "It might have something to do with Weaselton."

Jude nodded. "Looks like its distracted, maybe we can get the jump on him."

"Alright, follow me."

* * *

"You know, I didn't realize it was possible for the Cleaners to mess up this badly." The panther said, looking out into the grass of the park.

"I think it makes it more interesting." The coyote said, taking a swig of brandy from a bottle. "Adds a bit of spice to the game."

"There's no game, anymore." The panther stated. "This is turning into just chaos, and if it keeps going, the Elders will be onto us in no time."

"Bah, fuck what the big guys say." The coyote said, smashing the bottle against the bench he was sitting on. "Its not like they care about any of these places."

"You do realize that, while your lounging around, we're getting closer and closer to total collapse, right?" He asked.

"Yes, I do." The coyote replied. "No, I do not care."

The panther groaned. "Alright, but I do care about losing my job." He said. "I'm going to go clean up some of this mess."

He snapped his fingers, causing a blue portal to materialize in front of him. The panther strolled through it, the coyote getting up and tossing his bottle through the portal as well. "FUN RUINER!" He yelled.

He grunted as the portal closed. "KNEW I shouldn't have brought him along!" He slapped himself "'He'll be a good fallback!' Yeah right!" He grunted in anger again. "Alright, C, he could ruin everything. So, what do you do when the opponent makes a move?" He chuckled. "Better make my own, then."

He snapped his paw, causing a green portal to appear in front of him. "Time to get a bit weird." He rushed into the portal, and it vanished.

* * *

The two looked at the creature as it just stood there, apparently completely oblivious to the two mammals looking directly at it.

"So, what do I do?" Jude asked. "Do we have guns?"

"We have Tasers." Nick whispered. "I'll try." He pulled out his Taser, and tip-toed towards the thing's ripping body. He fired it, but the wire seemed to bounce off, completely ineffective. "Welp."

It managed to get the thing's attention, though. It didn't do something simple, like turn around, or even just swivel its head around, like a horror movie. Oh no.

It twisted its stump-like head towards them, contorting it like a wet noodle. it's bloody red eye shining brighter than before, pointed directly at them. "IDENTIFYING." Its eye shined even brighter briefly, nearly blinding the two. "ERROR. SUBJECTS SHOULD BE UNABLE TO SEE BETWEEN."

With the sound of rusty metal scraping against itself, two massive, bat-like wings appeared from the sides of the creature. It let out a powerful flap, the force of it nearly causing the two to fall. "MUST RECTIFY ERROR." Its eye shone again. "DELETION IS NECESSARY."

"Oh, I do not like the sounds of that." Jude said.

The creature's stalk-like head twisted and contorted, lowering itself down awkwardly to reach the two's level, eye facing towards the stunned mammals. There was a horrible, piercing noise as the eye began to shone even brighter.

"Rabbit," Nick started, backing off. "Run."

"Don't have to tell me twice!"

The thing let out a horrible hiss, and the two managed to leap out of the way, hitting the rooftop just before the massive laser shot out. The red beam seemed to travel off into the horizon, going as far as the eye could see. It managed to scrape at the roof, and as the beam shortly fizzled out, it revealed that the part it had hit, had simply vanished. No rubble, nothing, just gone.

"Holy shit!" Jude yelled, leaping up. "What the fuck is this thing!?"

"I don't want to find out anymore!" Nick yelled, running towards the fire escape, which was now partially hanging in midair. The rabbit leaped over the hole to see the oddity as well. Part of the fire escape, part of it holding it to the building, was simply gone, but it wasn't falling.

"Looks like sense went for a break!" Jude nervously chuckled.

"Oh, it looks like sense went for a summer vacation!" Nick retorted, hearing the creature's hissing sound again. "HURRY UP!" He pushed the rabbit to lower platform of the fire escape, and then leaped down himself, barely avoiding another laser blast.

The two then quickly scampered down the escape, but couldn't reach the lowest platform before another hiss could be heard. They leaped off of the fire escape, hitting and rolling on the ground. Looking up, they watched as another laser fired, this time completely decimating the fire escape, leaving only a few bits hanging loosely in midair.

It had also managed to cleave a massive hole in the ground. The fox got up, short of breath, and walked to the hole. He looked down. All he could see was darkness. It looked like it went on forever.

"PURSUING."

He looked up, seeing the monster, wings spread, ready to take flight. It prepared to flap, but suddenly stopped. Its red eye suddenly turned a shape of light blue. "ERROR FIXED." It let out, stiltedly. "MISSION HAS BEEN COMPLETED." The thing then seemed to shrivel up, and vanished.

Both of them stood there in silence for a good five minutes, alternating between looking at the building, and looking at the hole.

"We need to show Higgins this." Nick stated, running off, the rabbit following.

They ran out from behind the apartment, and noticed something… odd. There were no officers around. In fact, the entire crime scene seemed to be gone, replaced with Weaselton's bootleg DVD hock. The two slowly walked up to it, confused.

"Where'd the innards go?" Jude quietly asked as they stepped up to the table.

"Why would I know?" He replied. The two were quickly startled as Weaselton popped up from under the table.

"Hey, if it isn't Flopsy the copsy, and, uh… Slick the… Nick." He sarcastically greeted. "You two here to get me whacked by the mob again?"

The two stared at him, not entirely sure what to say.

"What, I got somethin' in my teeth?" He asked, picking at his gums.

"How are you alive?" Jude frankly said. "We saw your guts, all splayed out on the ground!"

"We have photographic evidence!" Nick yelled, the weasel looking at the two, slightly terrified. "I'll be back in a second." He quickly ran over to the cruiser.

"A guy almost dies a lot in this sorta business, y'know?" Weaselton said.

"I probably know much better than you do." The rabbit muttered, examining the various bootleg DVDs on the table.

"For instance, nearly got run over by a truck a minute ago." He continued, not hearing the rabbit's muttering "Some weird panther guy managed to save me, though. If he hadn't my guts woulda been everywhere!"

The rabbit's ears perked up at what the weasel had said, but before he could reply, there was a yell of terror. He turned to see Nick, running towards them with the case file. "What's the big deal, I've got sensitive ears."

"I think there's something bigger going on here." He said, eye twitching. "Look…" he opened the case file to show the rabbit.

Nothing.

All the information in the file had simply… vanished. The rabbit grabbed it, and stared in awe. But before he could say anything, the file itself disintegrated into dust. "What the hell's going on?" The rabbit questioned.

"You two forget to take your crazy pills today?" Weaselton asked.

"Forget we were here, Weaselton." Nick said, his voice shaking a bit. The two then quickly ran back to the car. The rabbit started it up, and the radio instantly began buzzing.

Nick quickly pressed the answer button. "Yes, hello, this is the 'Currently Going Crazy' Group, how can we help you?"

"Hopps, Wilde!" Bogo yelled. "Where in the world are you? I sent you to cover the case at the DMV, what are you doing on Flock Street!?"

"We'd like to know that too, actually!" Jude said. "We just ran into the-"

"We got lost." Nick interrupted. "Rabbits don't exactly have the best sense of direction."

Bogo let out a sigh, him slamming a hoof against his desk audible on the radio. "Alright, but you better get there ASAP."

"Don't worry, we will." Nick assured, hanging up.

"So, what do we do now?" Jude asked. "Should we go to the crime scene, or should we try to find that… thing?"

"I have a feeling that it's going to be there." Nick stated.

"What?"

"The… The thing." He tried to explain, but kept stumbling. "It'll be at the next crime scene, I just have a feeling."

"Whatever you say, Wilde."

The car drove off, and a flurry of questions were going through Nick's head. What was that horrible thing, why had Weaselton suddenly come back to life, why had all the evidence of him dying just vanish? And most importantly…

What had happened to his real partner?


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 – City Sickness**

She probably should have realized how bad an idea running out into Tundra Town in her sleepwear was. The rabbit probably should have asked for a coat before running off.

But she was busy making a statement about how confused and upset she was, so she felt she couldn't go back in. Didn't stop her from standing in the front of the building, shivering, and barely able to move. Yeah, definitely not a good idea.

"Oh god, are you kidding me?" A voice behind her yelled in disbelief. She wanted to turn around, but couldn't.

She then felt an oversized jacket be placed around her. It was warm, warm enough for her to start moving again. "T-thank you." She said with a shiver. She turned around, to find Nicole, also dressed in a warm jacket, and now with a silver ring around her neck.

"Don't mention it." She replied. "Now we really need to get you to a hospital."

"I will drive." A gruff voice said from behind them. They turned to face Koslov, who also now had a silver ring around his neck. "Bellwether put me in charge of you." He stated. "Come." He motioned for them to follow, and started heading over to a large limo.

They stepped into the limo, and as soon as it turned on, Judy felt herself begin to melt. It was wonderful. The car started, and drove off. After a few minutes of heating up, she finally said something else that had been bothering her.

"You know, for a mob, you guys are really nice to a random stranger."

"No reason to dislike." Koslov said as he continued driving down the moonlit road.

"The Big family has always been a lot more accepting than most groups in the city." Nicole continued for the polar bear. "It's called a family for a reason."

"The Mr. Big I knew would've iced me."

"Not sound like him." Koslov stated.

"Mr. Big was always pretty welcoming." Nicole said. "I mean, obviously not much to cops, but you were kind of dying."

"Also, not exist."

"Speaking of, what was with your little storm out in there?" Nicole asked. "Do you know something about Bellwether?"

"Well," She started. "Bellwether was Mayor Lionheart-"

Before she could continue, the car was full of laughter. "Lionheart, mayor?" Nicole said, baffled. "What kind of carrots have you been eating?"

"Can I finish before you start pointing things out?"

Nicole shifted in her seat a bit.

"Anyway, Bellwether was the Mayor's assistant, and ended up starting a conspiracy involving Nighthowlers to make predators go savage." She continued. "Me and my partner, Nick, stopped her plan, and put her in jail." She took a deep breath. "Which is why her being there, acting friendly towards me… felt wrong."

"Oh, so rabbit is crazy?" Koslov said, pretty directly. "Maybe should change for mental ward."

"I don't think she is." Nicole said. "To be honest, the past day… year for you guys, I suppose, was pretty odd."

Judy nodded. "First it goes from you guys not existing, to me not existing. It all feels wrong." She shuddered. "And so many things changed in a night, how did this all happen?"

The fox shrugged.

"And uh, maybe this is a bit uncomfortable to talk about but…" She pointed to her neck, trying to insinuate towards the collar.

"Oh, this?" Nicole started, grabbing the ring. "Yeah, this is a tame collar. Horrid things, zap you with ten thousand volts if you get overly angry at something."

"Can you take them off?" She asked.

"Only at homes." Koslov said.

"They're mandatory to wear in public." Nicole explained. "It's mostly bullshit, just a way of controlling the masses."

"That's horrible." Judy said, shocked.

"You're a prey, you don't even know the half of it."

There were a few minutes of silence as the limo drove down the icy road. Finally, Koslov spoke up. "Hospital is few minutes away."

"Think you can do this by yourself?" Nicole asked the rabbit.

"What?" She said, confused. "Are you not coming in with me?"

"No way let pred in with prey." Koslov explained.

"Seriously!?" She yelled. "Even though you drove me all the way here!?"

"That's the breaks, Carrots." Nicole said.

She seemed to reflexively jab the fox in the side of her arm.

"Ow, what was that for?" The fox asked, rubbing her jacket covered arm.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Judy apologized. "You just… It's something I did to my partner when he made a bad joke. Or uh, called me Carrots."

"You mean the fox?" Nicole asked. "He seemed like a pretty funny guy to me."

"Maybe it's a Wilde thing." The rabbit shrugged.

The limo stopped. "Here is stop." Koslov said. "Hurry, go. Before bleed all over seat."

Judy let out a small chuckle, but it didn't appear to be meant as a joke. She cleared her throat, and shuffled to the door, opening it up and hopping to the ground. She turned back to the fox, and the polar bear. "Um, thank you." She said. "I really appreciate this."

"You're welcome!" Nicole said cheerfully. "Now hurry up before you drop dead."

The rabbit nodded, and shut the door. The limo quickly drove off, and she turned to the hospital doors. As a rabbit, she was designed to walk across slippery surfaces. She still tried to avoid rushing, mostly due to her wounds. As she shuffled to the entrance, a thought crossed her mind.

How was she supposed to get medical attention if she didn't exist anymore?

She sighed, and hoped she was being more paranoid about this all. She stepped through the sliding doors, and into the warmth of the building. Judy stepped to the receptionist desk, which was currently being handled by a rather friendly looking antelope.

"Hello, how can I help you?" She asked.

"Um, yes, I think I need to be admitted." Judy answered.

"Do you have a health card on you?" The antelope asked.

Judy quickly opened her jacket, showing her bandaged body, multiple bleeding wounds still visible through it. "Does this work?" She jokingly asked the rather shocked antelope.

"Oh yes, I'll get a doctor right away!"

* * *

"Okay, you two know the plan?" The coyote asked, cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"I'm not entirely sure what's happening, but whatever." Said a female figure, dressed in an ornate red and gold robe. "I'm down for ruining lives."

The robed figure moved to the side a bit, as a much larger figure stepped forward. Its visor like eye glowed red, and it produced a heavy breathing. "If you provide the money, I will kill whoever you want." It said, voice deep and metallic.

"No!" The coyote yelled. "No killing! I just need you to capture a rabbit, and a fox. Simple, right?"

"Kidnapping is a much larger sum." The armored creature said.

"It's also not as much fun." The robed figure said.

"You can kill whoever you want to get to them, just make sure those two aren't killed!" The coyote insisted. "And I'll give you whatever you want in return, just bring them to me!"

"Anything?" The robed creature asked inquisitively, sliding forward unnaturally.

"Literally anything."

"Ooh, I like the sound of that."

"All I require is the fee." The armored being said.

"That's why I like you, bud." The coyote said, poking the armored being in the chest with his cigarette. "Simple, straight to the point."

"Alright, so where are these two?" The robed creature asked.

"One's driving down Hailstone Street, the other," He motioned towards the hospital across from the building they were standing on. "Is right over there."

"I will take the vehicle." The armored one said. "I always enjoy a moving target."

"Fine with me." The robed one followed, floating up into the air. "There's probably lots of delicious prey over there."

"Whatever." The coyote sounded. "Just hurry up, I don't have all the time in the world." He pulled out another cigarette and lit it with a flick of his claw. "Unlike some traitorous scum…" He muttered.

Wordlessly, the armored creature launched into the air, with a rocket boosted jump. The robed one looked back, before turning to the hospital, whipping and twirling through the air towards it.

The coyote looked around for a second. He snapped his claws together, summoning a green portal in front of him. "Now it's time to deal with the other two."

He ran through the twisting vortex, which shut behind him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 – Cannonball**

When Nick heard that the next murder was at the DMV, he really hoped it wasn't who he thought it was.

Really, really, REALLY, hoped it wasn't. He didn't want to lose two friends in the same day.

Unfortunately, when he walked in to the building, his fears were confirmed. Flash had been killed, reduced to the same gut pile that Weaselton had. Or at least, had been at one point.

"Poor guy." He sighed as he looked at the remains. "Didn't deserve this."

"You, uh, knew him?" Jude asked. "Why would a former criminal be friends with a DMV guy?"

"It's a very personal, very complex story." He explained. "But to put it short, we met at school."

"Oh."

"Oh, there you guys are!" Sounded a familiar voice. They turned to see Officer Higgins, again. He walked up to them. "We've been waiting for you guys for an hour."

"Wait," Jude started. "I thought you-"

The fox quickly covered the rabbits mouth with his paw. "Please, don't say anything."

"What? Is there something on my face?" Higgins asked, feeling around his muzzle.

"No, there is absolutely nothing on your face." Nick said. "My partner was just a bit… confused, for a second."

"I know when someone is lying, and if you don't tell me, I'll be very self-conscious for the rest of the day." Higgins stated.

"THERE'S NOTHING ON YOUR MUG!" Jude shouted. He took a deep breath. "Alright, so you just found him like this, right?"

Higgins nodded. "And we can't-"

"Can't being the remains to the lab, we know." Nick interjected.

"How did you know?" He asked.

"Not important." The fox looked around, and spotted a security camera. "Hey, have you checked the security tapes yet?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, but it probably won't do you any good." The hippo stated. "It was mostly just static."

"We still want to have a look." Jude stated.

"Alrighty." Higgins said, sounding a bit unsure. "Follow me."

The two were led to a security room, which surprisingly only had a few screens. Nick supposed that the DMV was just kind of one big room.

Higgins fiddled with the computer for a second, and brought up a playback on one of the screens. "This is where it just turns to static." He stated. They watched as Flash, on the screen, slowly walked towards the exit. "See?" The hippo said, out of nowhere. "Totally worthless."

The two kept looking at the screen, it still just showed Flash, walking. "Are you blind r something?" Jude rather rudely asked. "It's just showing the sloth, no static!"

"What?"

"Yeah." Nick said, entranced by the video. "We can see it."

"Are you guys pulling my leg?" he asked. "Because, physically, that would be a bad idea."

"No, we can see it!" Nick reiterated. He continued watching, climbing up onto a chair to get a better look. "We can see it." He kept watching, until something happened. A massive thing, the creature, flew through the front of the DMV. Before Flash could react, which would have taken a long time anyway, the creature fired one of its lasers at him. In an instant, the sloth was reduced to a pile of innards.

The fox and rabbit tried to keep their lunch in at seeing such a distressing event.

The video continued, showing the thing writhing around, as if in pain, before quickly flying back out of the building. There was then a brief flicker, and the building, the massive hole the creature had created, and the glass on the ground, was all gone.

It had gone back to normal. Well, aside from the pile of sloth innards still sitting there.

"Now its back to normal." Higgins shrugged.

"What the fuck did we just watch?" Jude asked.

The fox quickly turned around, looking serious. Suddenly, a sly grin crept onto his muzzle. "Got ya, Higs!" He laughed. "Bet you were pretty scared there, huh?"

"Damn it Nick." He said. "I hate when you mess with me."

"Hey, its what I do." Nick replied, hopping down from the chair. The rabbit was incredibly confused by what had just happened. "Now if you excuse us, we have some investigating to do." Nick continued, heading for the exit. "C'mon… uh, Carrots."

The two stepped out of the building. "What the hell are you talking about, Wilde!?" Jude yelled. "Did you not see that!?"

"I did, Hopps." Nick said. "Do you think anyone would buy that we could see anything there?" He asked, poking the rabbit in the nose. "No way, they'd throw us in the looney bin. Same if we told them anything about what we've seen."

"So, uh, what do we do?"

"Well, if my hunch is correct…" he looked around. "And they usually are, there should be…" He spotted a thing, sitting at the top of a nearby building. "There we go." He pointed towards the black creature.

"So, what, you want to go fight that thing again?" Jude asked, looking at the thing. "And end up like the slowpoke in there?"

"Obviously not." The fox said. "But there's a connection between that and the weird things that have been going on. I just know it."

"So, we just… sit here and watch it?" The rabbit asked. The fox nodded in response.

So, they waited, sat on the pavement, watching the unmoving thing intently.

"This is really boring." Jude said, struggling to keep his eyes open.

"It's called a stakeout." Nick explained. "They usually are boring."

"I'd say 'Is every day this boring on the force' but this day has been absolutely insane so far, so…" The fox ignored him, continuing to stare down the thing. Jude sighed, and turned to look at the entrance of the DMV.

Standing in front of it was a panther, in a sharp suit. He looked out of place, and why would he be going into a DMV during a crime scene? He nudged the fox. "You know that guy?" He asked.

The fox turned to look, watching as the smartly dressed panther walked into the building. "I don't think I know him." Nick said. "Now lets get back to-" He turned to the building, and suddenly the creature was gone. "What!?" The fox stood up, alongside the rabbit. "Where'd it go?"

"I think a better question would be 'Where did they come from'!" Jude stated. The fox turned to the entrance, seeing a number of other mammals, definitely civilians, walking out of the building.

"What!?" Nick let out again. He rushed into the building, and looked across the room, spotting Flash. He was alive and well, continuing his job at his already fairly dead pace. "It happened again." He muttered.

"You know," Jude started. "Weaselton mentioned something about a panther."

The fox's eyes widened. He quickly dashed back out of the building, the rabbit trailing behind him. He halted at the front walkway, and looked around. Nick spotted the panther, rounding a corner. "AFTER HIM!" He shouted, before dashing off again.

They got a few odd looks as they dashed through the parking lot, and rounded the corner. "YOU!" Nick yelled at the panther, who turned around to look at them, before dashing off on his own. "GET BACK HERE!"

The panther was surprisingly quick in his suit, weaving through oncoming passersby with no effort. Almost as if he could tell what they were going to be doing. On the other hand, the two ex-criminals had a bit more trouble, having to duck and slide through the mammals as they chased.

Eventually, they made it to a clearing, and spotted the panther running down into an alleyway. They continued their pursuit. At this point, Nick had completely forgotten Police protocol, this had become a personal mystery.

They rushed into the alley, the panther standing there, calmly. "Alright, alley cat, time to do some explaining!" Nick yelled.

"Yeah, maybe you can explain all the weirdness going on today!" Jude continued.

"What?" The panther said, trying to sound confused. "I don't know what you're talking about, everything's perfectly-"

"Yeah you can't fool me." The two said simultaneously. They gave each other a glance.

"We're uh, both criminals and conmen, that means we're good at reading emotions." Nick explained. He cleared his throat. "Tell us about what those weird laser… bat… things are, and why the dead are coming back to life!" He tried to sound threatening. "And, uh, where my real partner is!"

"Wait, you can actually tell something is going on?" The panther said, sounding genuinely confused. "This might be an even bigger problem than I thought."

"Well, if you aren't gonna answer, then we'll have to make you." Jude threatened, cracking his fists. The two rushed forward, preparing for a fight.

Then, they skid to a halt.

They looked around. They were still in the alley, but it was pitch black. It was night time. The panther was gone as well. "Well, add that to the weirdness tally." Nick joked as he rubbed his head in confusion.

"Wasn't it just…?" Jude asked, utterly lost. "And where did…?"

Nick let out a loud groan. He needed a nap. "Do you know how to get to Judy's apartment, or do you need me to drive you?"

"I have absolutely no idea, a drive would be nice."

"Alright, I'll give you directions."

"Wait, what?"

* * *

The two stepped into the cramped apartment. Its awful odor brought a sense of nostalgia to Nick. A long while ago, Judy had invited him over. It wasn't amazing, it was quite terrible, what with the place being barely large enough for both of them, but spending time with her always felt great. Suddenly his mood dropped, as he realized… she was gone.

"You know, this place really sucks." Jude said, hopping up onto the bed. "Did your partner even wash the bed sheets, or does it just naturally smell that way?"

He looked up from the bed, and saw the fox's forlorn face. He felt bad about the joke. He felt about a lot of things, like somehow completely replacing her, even if he didn't know how that happened. She obviously meant a lot to the fox. Nick's face reminded Jude of his own partner when she looked upset, it was awful.

He sighed, and got off o the bed. "I think I might have something that'll cheer you up." He said, motioning up to one of the pictures.

Nick looked at it, it was him and a rabbit. No wait, it was him and Judy! His eyes widened. It didn't look like Jude, it was definitely her! He leaped up, and plucked the picture from the wall. "Photo evidence of her!" He said, feeling tears begin to well up.

"Go and show people." Jude said. "Go and find her."

He took a deep breath, and nodded, slipping the picture into his jacket, and rushing off. Jude let out a sigh.

"Foxes. So overemotional."

* * *

The coyote quickly ran out of the green portal, and into a warehouse. "Sorry to keep you two waiting!" He apologized, walking up to a small figure, decked out in heavy spiked armor.

"I'm just glad there's someone here who isn't pants shittingly terrifying." The armored character said in a deep, gruff voice, unfitting for its stature, and motioning over to another being in the room.

It was less a being, and more a swirling, twisting vortex of pure darkness, with arms sticking out of the side. It glared at them with horrible, blood red eyes. It didn't say anything, only letting out a hiss that caused the two's ears to begin ringing.

"I know he's not ideal company, but he's one of the best out there." The coyote assured. "Now, I just went over this with the other two, but I need you to catch a rabbit and a fox for me." He explained. "I'll pay you in whatever you want."

"Food, water, and ammo." The armored character said. "That's all I need. What about, uh…"

They turned back to the vortex, which managed to hiss out a single word.

" _ **POOOOOWWWWEEEERRRRRRR…**_ "

"Got it!" The coyote said, a sheepish grin on his face. "Basic supplies, horrible amounts of power, I can do both of those!"

"So, what do the fox and rabbit look like?' The small, armored creature asked.

"Let's just say you've probably seen them already, in a sense." The coyote responded. "If you want locations…" He placed his paw against the ground for a second. "The rabbit is in his apartment, and the fox is downtown."

"Foxhunt, huh?" The armored figure said, pulling out a rather comically oversized gun for his size. "I've always enjoyed those." He pointed the gun towards the wall of the warehouse, and fired. A small missile launched out of the barrel, and met with the wall, creating a massive explosion. Once the smoke cleared, a massive hole in it had been created. "Still works like a charm."

He walked over to a bike, a classic chopper, but with extra spikes and guns attached to it. He hopped on, and drove out of the hole. The coyote turned in fear towards the vortex monster. "So, I guess you're taking the rabbit?" He asked.

The monster's eyes widened, and it harshly hissed another word.

" _ **RRRRAAAAAAABBBBBBBIIIIIITTTTTT…**_ "

The coyote uncovered his ears, watching as the thing turned into a swirling gust of wind, and flew out of the hole as well. He shuddered. "And I thought my boss was scary." He admitted. "Probably shouldn't tell him that though."

He sighed, and clapped his paws together, looking around. "Guess I just have to wait now." He said cheerfully.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 – Out to Get You**

The limo continued driving down the icy road of Tundra Town, the moonlight shining through the windows. Koslov wasn't much of a talker, guy barely had a grasp of English, but she was getting pretty bored, and the silence was killing her.

Usually in this kind of situation, her and Jude would be chatting and joking, but she was completely alone. Not literally, but she felt completely alone.

"Where are you, uh, taking me, anyway?" She asked.

"Back to manor." He said, rather flatly. "Still need to interrogate."

"Shouldn't you wait for Jude to show up?" She asked. "He might know what's going on."

"Orders."

Her ears drooped. Always an order follower, that Koslov.

"What do you think happened to him?" Nicole asked. "Jude, I mean."

"Dead, probably." He wasn't really helping.

She could tell that Jude wasn't dead, he couldn't be. The rabbit was too tough to just suddenly disappear and drop dead. Knowing him, he'd gone into hiding to set up a real final heist for them to perform.

Or maybe he was in a situation like hers, confused and lost. Probably not, the bunny always had some idea of what was going on. Would've made a good cop.

Suddenly, the car skid to a halt, throwing the fox forward and into the back of the seat. She slammed into it, and then flew backwards. "What was that!?" She yelled, rubbing her muzzle.

"Trouble." Koslov said. Nicole raised her brow, a bit confused by what the polar bear meant. There was a sudden crash above the polar bear, two massive footprints pressing down on the roof of the car. Koslov had to duck in order to not get hit on the head.

They watched in silence as the thing on the roof walked forward, creating footprint after footprint. It stopped halfway down the limo. There was a pause, and then a small buzzing sound. Suddenly, through the roof, shot a small red laser beam. It cut through the roof, and right into the limo's seat. She had to shuffle herself out of the way as it started to move, moving in a square shape until it had been fully completed.

A square panel of the roof fell down, Nicole leaping out of the way as it crashed down. There were more footsteps, and a red light shined through the hole. Nicole looked up into the opening, but all she could see was the red light, it was blinding.

The light dimmed, and a massive, armored arm reached through the hole, attempting to grab her. She quickly ducked back, with a shriek, the hand missing her, and instead accidentally pushing down on a large, square shaped chunk of the car.

"Oh god, what is that!?" She yelled.

"RUN!" Koslov yelled, pressing the unlock key on the side of his door. She quickly complied, opening the door, and scampering for her life across the icy road.

She tripped, and slid across the ground, scraping her leg. She grabbed it, and looked up to the thing on the roof of the car. She could make it out much better now, the moonlight shining down on it.

It looked like some sort of robot, a red, V-shaped visor for eyes, and a breathing apparatus, with tubes connected, for a mouth. On top of its head was another, tough more pronounced, V-shaped emblem. The entire being was purple, and covered in segmented armor, like a knight, but more Darth Vader. In fact, the only thing it was missing was a cape.

It hopped off of the limo, and crashed into the ground, causing a small tremor. "You are coming with me." It demanded in a low, monotonous voice. Just then, the front door of the limo opened up, Koslov stepping out, now wearing brass knuckles.

The mechanical being turned from her to look at the bear. Koslov quickly walked up to it, and attempted to punch it in the face. Surprisingly, the creature let the punch land. Unfortunately, Koslov reeled his hand back in pain. Then the brass knuckle cracked, and shattered. He looked at the thing, and stepped back as it approached.

The robot landed a punch to the polar bear's chest, the sound of bones shattering permeating the air as it landed. Judging by how it had punched, it seemed like it was barely putting any effort into it. Koslov fell to the ground, clutching his chest.

"A waste of my talents." It sounded, turning back to the fox. She quickly got up, and started to run into a nearby alley. As soon as she rounded the corner, she collapsed to the ground, clutching her leg.

She panted, absolutely terrified of the machine that was probably going to kill her. There was silence, it didn't seem to be following her. Then there was a whirring sound. It was getting closer.

Boom!

An explosion, the wall from behind her burst, sending her flying into the building on the other side. She was still alive, but bloodied and bruised. From the hole the explosion had created, she could see the monster, approaching her. Her heart began to race as it got closer with each thundering step.

"You will come with me." It demanded again. "Whether it be through force, or willingly." Its visor glowed threateningly. "I never let my prey escape."

She gulped. "Who… what…" She sputtered out.

"They call me the Hunter." It said. "So, are you coming with me or not?"

"She's not going anywhere!" A voice from behind them yelled.

"Koslov?" Nicole said, spotting the polar bear. He was holding a massive minigun, visibly struggling to keep it up. "WHY DO YOU HAVE A MINIGUN!?" She yelled.

"EMERGENCIES!"

The Hunter turned to the polar bear, who began to fire it at the robot. A flurry of bullets pelted the Hunter, and in a few seconds, the gun was out of ammo. Surrounding the mechanical creature's feet were hundreds of bullets. It hadn't caused a dent.

It knelt down, and picked up one of the bullets, examining it. "How… primitive." It sounded, crushing the bullet between its fingers. The polar bear was now fully terrified, he had usually been stoic and unemotional, seeing this was just making it worse for Nicole.

The Hunter rose, and raised its arm. A small piece on its forearm rose up, revealing what looked like some kind of gun. It fired a single shot, a green laser, which sliced directly through Koslov's heart. In his last moments of consciousness, he stumbled back, feeling at the perfectly circular hole that had just been carved into him. He fell over, dead.

"Oh god…" she muttered, before the Hunter turned back to her, the gun aimed directly at her.

There was a moment of silence, the only noise being each other's heavy breathing. In an instant, the Hunter opened its palm, firing a green net at the fox, trapping her inside. "I expected you to have a bit more fight in you." It muttered, grabbing the net.

"Where are you taking me!?" She screamed. "Are you going to kill me!?"

It lifted her up to its eye level. "A client promised me a lot for your capture." It explained. "Strange he'd offer so much for such an insignificant little fox, but money is money."

With the sound of a rocket, the Hunter launched into the air, landing on top of a nearby building, net slung over its shoulder. It looked around. "Drop off point… He never gave me a drop off point. Fuck."

"So, who hired you, again?" Nicole asked. "Some space emperor guy? Maybe a giant robot?"

"It was a coyote." It answered, leaping to another building. "I'll just leave you at the meet up spot. Wait for my pay."

After a few more leaps and bounds, they crash landed onto another building, this one facing the hospital Nicole had been at only a short while ago. The Hunter looked at the hospital. "Hm, so that's what she can do."

"What?" She said, confused. The Hunter held the net up to face the hospital.

The hospital was shrouded in a black smoke, completely covering it. Outside, there were a number of police cars, officers trying to break through the smoke.

"What is that?" Nicole asked, looking on in horror.

"A colleague of mine is in there," The Hunter started. "And she's hunting down your rabbit counterpart."

"Judy?!" She said. "Oh no, oh no…"

"Don't worry, she's not going to die." The Hunter monotonously assured. "She'll be with us in a few moments, along with the other three."

Other three? What was happening? She wasn't entirely sure, but Nicole felt something bigger, something far more disastrous than a simple missing persons case was going on.

Something a whole, whole lot bigger.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 – Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors**

 **WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS HORROR CONTENT, BE ADVISED**

Judy laid in her hospital bed, feeling anxious. It had been a few hours since she had been admitted in, and there hadn't been any visits from the staff. She wasn't expecting to be rushed to surgery, but she had expected… something, at least.

Worse, she hadn't had anything to eat all day, and her stomach was killing her.

She thought about getting up, demanding help, but her lack of identity here would probably put a damper on that plan. So instead, she waited. And she hated waiting.

Suddenly, the lights went out. "Great hospital." She sarcastically muttered. Well, this gave her a chance to get up and do something.

Luckily, as a rabbit, she had very good night vision. She could see the room very clearly, it was just… dimmer. She opened the door, and stepped into the hall. A shiver ran up her spine. Something felt off.

It was deathly quiet, almost unnaturally so. Even this late at night, she should've been able to hear something besides the beating of her own heart. She did have rabbit hearing, after all. The hall also seemed darker than it really should have been, but at the same time, a lot brighter. It felt wrong just to be here.

She continued to walk down the hall, walking past a door. It was a normal door, she didn't pay much mind to it as she walked by. Until there was a knock from the other side. She stopped, and turned back to the door. That's when she noticed how off it was.

It was a wooden door, in the middle of a concrete hospital. As she looked at it, a light shined from its clear window, and there was another knock. Judy rolled her eyes. She knew something was off, and despite her intense curiosity, she had enough weirdness the last two days, she didn't need more. So, she walked away, and continued down the hallway.

A hallway that didn't seem to end.

She was walking past the same sights, a fire extinguisher on the wall, a ceiling panel that seemed a bit loose, and, of course, the door. Each time she passed, the knock got louder.

After the 5th pass, the knock had turned into an incessant banging, that seemed to echo through the endless corridor.

"ALRIGHT, FINE!" She yelled, walking up to the door and swinging it open. She was greeted with a burst of smoke to her face, making her cough. Somehow, the smoke got in her eyes, making them water and close. She rubbed her eyes, and opened them.

She wasn't in the hospital anymore.

Instead, she was in a… forest? Large trees surrounded her on all directions, aside from one, which led to a large stone staircase. She let out an aggravated sigh as her ears drooped. Of course this is what happened. Couldn't have been a murdered hiding behind there, huh?

She shrugged, and started up the staircase. It took a rather long time, the staircase seemed to stretch on forever, but eventually, she reached the top. Somehow, what was up there was weirder than suddenly ending up in a forest.

It was some kind of party. A festival, maybe? Not like one she'd ever seen before, but the description seemed apt. It was in the middle of a grassy plateau, and in the middle of it, stood a large tower. At the top of the tower was a feline of some sort, dressed in a blue robe and headband, banding on a sideways drum with two sticks. The sound of the drum, and a few other instruments that didn't seem to be there, permeated the air.

The party seemed to mostly consist of an odd selection of mammals. Raccoon dogs, foxes, and felines, mostly. But, a few other party guests seemed especially strange. One resembled a green, hunched over thing with a shell, and a beak. That creature, in turn, was sitting at a table, a green liquid with was basically an umbrella with a face, two furred arms, and a single furred leg.

As she noticed the strange creatures, more continued to appear out of nowhere. There were a number of food stands lining the party, each one hosted by another bizarre creature. Before she could let out a scream or do anything, a smell hit her nose. It was delicious smelling, or maybe that was just what her stomach was telling her. She followed the smell to an empty food stand, a single paper lantern hanging from its wooden frame.

There seemed to be a stove on, cooking some… odd looking food. Three rounded balls, colored white, pink, and green, stuck together on a stick. They seemed to be finished, and there was nobody there, so maybe just taking one wouldn't hurt.

She reached out and grabbed one by the stick, and took a nibble of one of the balls. It was divine, it seemed to melt away in her mouth. Before she could take another bite, she was interrupted.

"HEY!" A rather high pitched, but gruff voice yelled. "You gonna pay for that, or are you gonna dine n' dash!?"

She looked around, not seeing, well, anyone. Then she looked up. The paper lantern hanging from the stand now suddenly had a massive, red eye, and a jagged looking mouth that flapped open as it spoke.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She said, placing the food back onto the stand. "I have absolutely no idea how I got here, and I haven't had anything to eat, and I didn't think anyone was here, so…"

"Ugh." It groaned. "Mortals." The string it was attached to stretched out, letting the lantern hang directly in Judy's face. "Don't you have some mochi to get pounding, rabbit?" It then looked her up and down for a moment. "Hey, wait a second…" It gasped, and flew up into the air. "Hey, guys!" The lantern shouted. "The special guest's arrived!"

Nearly every single creature there turned towards her. That's when she noticed that the drummer, and a handful of other mammals, didn't have faces, just flat, fur covered surfaces. There was cheering, incredibly loud cheering, so loud that it hurt her ears.

"Please," The lantern started. "Enjoy whatever food you want; our special guest deserves it all!"

"Uh, thanks." She said, grabbing the food she had previously put down, nibbling at it. "So, where am I?" She asked. "I thought I was just at a hospital a minute ago?"

The lantern laughed. "Lady K sure is amazing, ain't she?" He said.

"Lady who?"

"Yeesh, didn't think you mortals forgot about us that fast." He mumbled to himself. "Lady K, Lady Kitsuneki! She's our wonderful leader!"

"Wait, she set this up for me?" Judy said, sounding a bit amazed. "What did I do?"

"Only Lady K and her assistant know that." The lantern explained. "But yokai never refuse a party!"

She guessed that… whatever these things were, they were probably yokai. She had obviously come off like an idiot to the talking lantern, so she didn't bother asking just what a yokai actually was. Instead, she walked off, more delicious smells catching her nose.

She walked up to another food stand, this one selling a food she recognized. Dumplings! She never really had one before, but it was free. She looked at the creature hosting the stand, a fox, which had no face, much like the drummer. It had its hands placed to the counter.

"Excuse me?" She politely started. "Do you mind if I have a dumpling?"

"Of course not!" It said, its voice seeming to emanate from its body. "A special guest deserves special treatment, don't you think? I'll prepare you one."

It lifted its paws up, revealing its palms, which had large eyes peering from them. The eyes looked around, and cautiously prepared a dumpling for her. Judy tried not to be rude, but her face kind of made it obvious she was freaked out.

One of the eyes glanced up at her. "What's wrong?" It asked. "Is there something on my face?"

"Uh, no." She awkwardly responded. "There is… absolutely nothing on your face."

"Oh, good." It said, handing her the dumpling on a plate. "It would be weird if there was something on my face, which doesn't exist!"

"Ha ha, yeah." She felt horribly awkward, so she grabbed the dumpling and dashed off. She scarfed at the dumpling, a meat dumpling, as she headed into the crowd. She still didn't know where she was, and she was fairly terrified. She felt out of place, even though she was apparently the guest of honor.

As she walked through the crowd, she spotted something bizarre out of the corner of her eye. On the other side of the crowd, was what looked like a rabbit, but not like any of the rabbits she knew. It was distressingly tall, and had the anatomy of an unevolved rabbit. Its pure white fur made its blood red, wall-eyed stare even more prominent. Even stranger, it was somehow carrying a large wooden mallet, and dressed in a blue robe. It swung the mallet into a wooden pedestal, causing some kind of white, gooey substance to reveal itself. That's all it seemed to be doing.

She shuddered, and moved back into the crowd. Some of the creatures continued greeting her, offering her food, like cucumbers and sushi. She graciously accepted. Suddenly there was what sounded like a speaker turning on.

She turned to see a massive, wooden stage near where she entered. That wasn't there before. The rabbit moved through the crowd, trying to get a better look at who was on stage. It was an elderly mouse, much larger than any she had seen, around her size, actually. It had a massive, bulbous head, and was also dressed in a blue robe.

"Testing, testing." It spoke into a microphone. "Is this thing on?"

"It's on, Nu!" A female voice cried from behind the stage. "Everyone can hear you."

"Oh, uh, sorry my Lady!" He said back, before clearing his throat. "Welcome, ghouls, spirits, animate objects, to perhaps the greatest day in the history of the yokai world!" He announced. And to explain more, is our ever wonderful, ever kind, LADY KITSUNEKI!"

He quickly backed off, as four completely black creatures hopped up onto the stage, pulling out fans, pointing towards the center stage. The drummer behind them seemed to be beating the drum even faster now.

The back of the stage burst open, flooding it with purple smoke. From the smoke, walked a figure. It waved its paw, and the smoke instantly disappeared. Judy's eyes widened. It was the most beautiful fox she had ever seen, uncannily beautiful in fact. She was dressed in a flowing red and gold robe, which covered most of her body. She waved her paw again, and the black figures folded their fans, and vanished in a burst of smoke.

"Wow." Judy whispered.

"I know, right?" Something beside her gurgled. She looked at it, a massive, walking lump of hairless flesh, and stepped away from it. "Lady K always knows how to make an entrance!"

Lady K waved her paw again, the microphone flying from the large headed mouse and into her own paws. "Greetings, my children!" She greeted. Her voice was soft, but commanding. "I have brought you here today to celebrate our finest hour!" She continued. "But first, I would like to thank all of our wonderful vendors."

Judy was so enraptured by the fox, that she hadn't noticed that the big-headed mouse had disappeared from the stage. Well, not until she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around, startled, and then stepped back, even more startled, by the mouse standing behind her.

"Excuse me," He started. "Are you Judith Laverne Hopps?"

She nodded silently.

"Well, it's almost time for you to go on stage!" He said, pushing her out of the crowd. He walked her to behind the stage.

"But seriously, please try Kappa's cucumber rolls, their delicious." Lady K sounded from the loud speaker. "But for now, while we prepare our guest, we have a bit of a classic play to perform for you! Please enjoy Dojoji!" The flaps of the back of the stage flipped open, Lady K walking down wooden steps from behind it as music began to play.

"How was I out there, Nu?" She asked the mouse. "Was it 'positively radiant', or 'brighter than the sun has ever shone'?"

"Whichever makes you happiest, my lady!" He answered.

"Oh, you always know what to say to me!" Her eyes turned to the rabbit. She was much, much taller than Judy, probably even taller than Nick. "Is this our guest?" She asked, her tone dropping.

"Uh, yes, it is."

She looked at the rabbit, specifically at her outfit. It was a standard green hospital gown. "So, is that what mortals consider fashionable here?" The fox scoffed.

"Uh, no, this is what we wear when we go to the hospital." Judy explained.

She nodded. "Well, it's certainly not appropriate for the stage." Lady K announced. "Let's fix you up."

She snapped her claws together, and purple smoke surrounded the rabbit. She coughed, and tried to clear it. When it did clear, she looked down at herself. She was in a robe very similar to the fox's, only blue, and with crescent patterns on it.

"Perfect!" Lady K announced. "Now, it's almost time for you to go up on stage, so get ready!" She gave a wave, and walked back up onto the stage, starting another speech.

"I hate dresses." Judy lamented.

"It's not a dress," Nu, which she could only assume was a nickname, said. "It's a kimono, it's a traditional wear!"

"It's still tight and hard to move around in." She complained.

"And now, it's time to bring in our special, special guest!" Lady K announced. Judy's ears perked up, but she found herself being surrounded by smoke.

As it cleared, she found herself on the stage, overlooking a crowd of cheering monsters. She was terrified, not because of the weird creatures, but because she was just absolutely not prepared. She had stage fright.

"Welcome, everyone, Judith Laverne Hopps, with her, we will finally bring unanimous victory to the mortal realm!" Lady K announced.

Wait, what?

"It's also thanks to her that we were able to prepare all this lovely food!" She continued, cheerfully. "I mean, where else would we have found all the meat needed? I hope you all enjoyed the treat of 'hospital food'!"

Oh god.

Judy quickly put her paw to her mouth. The food she had eaten, it couldn't have been… right? Either way, her stomach was churning.

"Aw, can the rabbit not hold down her food?" Lady K mocked. "I can't blame you, there was a chance some of it was… diseased!" She burst out laughing as the rabbit fell to her knees. The crowd was cheering.

"Why are you doing this?" Judy managed to choke out. "Why do you need me?"

She felt a paw grab her back, and she was flung into the air. Suddenly, there was a tight grip around her neck, as she stared into the fox's ruby eyes. "It's pretty simple, really." Lady K started. "As much as I would love to cut your little cotton tail to PIECES AND EAT YOUR SOUL!" Her voice suddenly turned dark, as her grip tightened more. She cleared her throat, and loosened the grip. "I need you alive in order to go through with my bigger plans. But that doesn't mean I can't break you first!"

She moved over to the flap in the stage, the rabbit still in her grip. She flung it open, revealing nothing but an inky blackness. "You ready for some fun, moon bun?"

With a laugh, she tossed the rabbit into the void.

She closed her eyes as she fell, which only seemed like a few seconds before she crashed into the ground. She got up, and rubbed her head. She was back in her hospital gown, and back in the hospital. Was that all a dream?

No, it couldn't have been. She wasn't in the same place as when she entered. It was still a hallway, but it seemed… wrong, somehow. Perhaps it was the patchwork design of it, doors on the ceiling, and lights hanging off the walls.

She turned around, and stumbled onto her rear in surprise. On the wall was her face, giant sized, sticking out halfway from the wall. She felt at her own face, it was still there, and she shook her head. The giant copy of her face was gone, replaced with something written in blood red writing.

恐れ

She wasn't able to read it, but it certainly felt ominous. She gulped, and started down the twisted hallway.

Luckily, this didn't seem to be a horrible never ending corridor, as she came across a corner. She followed it, and eventually came up to a sign on the wall. It was very out of place in the middle of a hospital, bolted directly to the wall, made of rusted metal. On it was drawn a pure black symbol, shaped like a rabbit's head. Coming out of the rabbit's head were five spiraling, twisting arrows, each pointing in different directions.

Then there was a stomp. Her heart beat as she turned to look down the hall. A shadow was casting itself along the ground. She looked back up at the sign. It had completely vanished, replaced with a single word carved into the wall.

RUN

She heard breathing from down the hall. The rabbit decided that it was probably best not to argue with a disappearing sign, so she ran like hell.

She rounded another corner, and came across yet another strange sight. Three doors, lined up in a row. She quickly dashed, and leaped to grab the door knob of the one in the middle. Using her foot strength, she pulled at it, causing the door knob, and the door itself, to fly off the wall.

It was some kind of cloth? She tossed it over her shoulder, and tried the right most door. She leaped up to grab at the knob, but found her paw missing it. The door was painted onto the wall. She looked behind her, the shadow, the foot steps, the breathing, it was getting closer.

So, if none of the other doors were real, that means that the left one was real, right? She grabbed onto the handle, and swung the door open… to reveal the wall. She groaned in frustration, before turning around. The shadow had become massive.

She backed into the wall, and suddenly found herself falling again, this time down a flight of stairs. When she reached the bottom, she sat up, rubbing her head in pain. She looked around, it was still a hallway, but definitely a different hallway, thankfully. Oddly enough, there weren't any stairs in front of her, only a wall.

Whatever was going on, she was getting sick and tired of it, very quickly.

The only thing she could do right now was follow the path, which she did. It was a bit slower, due to the pain caused by the fall, but as she rounded another corner. She saw… mammals?

It was her parents!

"Mom! Dad!" She yelled, running up to them.

"Judy!" Her dad yelled, embracing her for a hug.

"What are you two doing here?" She asked.

"We heard about the accident that happened." Her mother explained. "The one that happened when the fox attacked you?"

"What?" She said, stepping back from them.

"The one in the museum, remember?" Her father said. "Got you right in the neck!"

She immediately felt her neck, and looked at her paw. It was covered in blood. Her heart was racing.

"I think he was named Nick?" He mother said. "Real brutal."

"What?" She said, confused. "Nick's my friend, he wouldn't…" Judy felt blood, pouring from her neck. "He wouldn't hurt me…"

There was a sudden, loud, bestial roar through the hallway. "Oh, I think that's him right now!" Her father suggested.

She looked behind her, trying to cover up the constantly bleeding wound. She saw a massive claw grasp onto the corner. It had needle thin claws, and absolutely decrepit looking paws. Then, the creature's head came into view.

It was like a mix between a skinned fox head, and a fish. Its eyes bugged out, seemingly unable to move, and its head was a nearly perfectly smooth, bone white fox skull. Its mouth was full of needle-like fangs, and it didn't seem like it could close. It spotted her, and turned towards the three rabbits. Its body was revealed as it walked towards them. It was bone thin, only somehow keeping its massive head up. Its tails splayed out into around nine separate ones.

It roared, and began thrashing towards them. Silently, Judy ran past her parents, before turning back to them. "HURRY UP!" She yelled.

They stared at her, silently, as the monster approached. It hovered its massive paws above them, and then slammed, causing them to burst open, like balloons filled with red paint. The blood seemed to splatter throughout the entire building, turning it from dark and dreary to a dreadful neon red. She continued to run.

She ran for what felt like forever. The hallway never seemed to end. Until it did.

A dead end.

She looked back. The monster was right behind her. She backed into the wall, falling on her behind. It approached, and stuck its horrible face directly into hers. With a horrible creaking noise, its jaw dislocated, turning its head into what resembled a bear trap. Its throat began to bulge, as a hairless lump of flesh awkwardly crawled out of its mouth. The lump quickly formed into a vague, familiar form.

It looked like Nick, but hairless, or rather, if he was made entirely out of flesh. Out of his back hung some type of umbilical cord, holding it aloft in the air.

It emitted some gurgling noises as it flopped its limbs around. It then made a groan that sounded exactly like him.

"hey judy" It said, still sounding like him. She tried to cover her ears. "do you hate me" It asked. She could still hear it, it was in her head. "because I hate you"

It moved closer towards her, and she covered her eyes, and fell completely to the ground, half covered in blood.

As she did, there was a burst of smoke, and everything vanished. The rabbit was unaware of this, unware she was now curled up on floor of the hospital lobby, perfectly in tact, with no blood. She was crying, shivering.

There was a laugh, and another burst of smoke, the rabbit still unware. Lady K appeared from the smoke, and kneeled over the rabbit. "Oh my me," She started. "I haven't had that much fun in so long." She chuckled to herself. "Rabbits, so overemotional."

She waved her hand, a cloud of smoke lifting the rabbit into the air. "Alright, let's get you to C-" There was a loud slamming sound, and she turned around.

"ZPD, you are under arrest!" Shouted a large rhino. He looked at the smoke cloud, and back at the unnaturally large fox, before backing away.

"C'mon, love," Lady K said coyly. "Stay for a bit, it might be good for your soul!" She quickly whipped her arms forward, causing them to extend. They wrapped around the rhino, and pulled him towards her. She smacked her lips with her also unnaturally long tongue.

As the rhino got closer, she seemed to be getting taller, until eventually she was towering over him. The fox's jaw dislocated, and her eyes turned pure white. He suddenly felt himself getting… weaker. Dryer. He managed to look down at his own hooves, and watch them shrivel away. Eventually, the fox snapped her mouth shut, and dropped the shriveled-up corpse to the ground.

"Hmm, not exactly high on spirit." She bemoaned. "Oh well, at least I managed to get in some good meals before this." She twisted into the air, and whipped out the front door, the cloud carrying the rabbit trailing behind her.

She whipped and swirled through the air, and landed on a building across from the hospital. "Man, you missed a party, big guy." She told the massive armored figure.

"I don't do parties." The Hunter said, rather frankly.

"You don't do fun, period."

She motioned her hand, the cloud gently placing the rabbit on the ground. A net next to the Hunter jostled. Nicole looked at the rabbit. "Judy?" She said. "Judy, are you okay?" She looked a bit closer.

Her eyes were both dilated and bloodshot, and she was shivering wildly, muttering to herself. "Oh god, what did you do to her!?" Nicole yelled.

"Oh, I just tortured her with her deepest, darkest fear." Lady K explained to the trapped fox. "Just a fun thing I like to do when I can't kill someone." She laughed again. "But don't worry, she'll be fine soon enough. Probably won't be able to go near a fox ever again though!" She burst out laughing, absolutely mad.

There was a sudden loud ripping sound, and Nicole watched as a green vortex ripped itself out of thin air. Out of the vortex walked a coyote, a rather ragged, dirty looking one in loose hanging clothes. A cigarette hung form his mouth.

"Oh, hey," he sounded. "You guys got them on time, good job." He stared at the shuddering rabbit. "I knew you were good at scaring, but do you think you might've gone a bit too far?"

"There's never a 'too far' when it comes to fear." Lady K said.

"Uh, sure." The coyote snapped his claws, and a rope suddenly appeared around the rabbit. "Just a precaution." He assured the fox. "Don't want her getting away."

"What about our payment?" The Hunter sounded, stomping forward.

"Yeah, where's this unlimited power you promised me?" Lady K asked.

"We'll discuss it on the other side." He said, putting the cigarette out. "Besides, we still have two others to wait for!"

The two looked at each other, and sighed. The Hunter grabbed the fox in the cage, while Lady K lifted the rabbit into the air. They followed the coyote into the portal, which shut behind them.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 – Dark**

The rabbit slumped down onto his new bed. Still as uncomfortable as it was in the morning. He grabbed one of the stuffed animals from a pile next to him. "Rabbit cop didn't come off as the kinda lady who collects Beanie Babies." He scoffed, before tossing it aside. "Seemed a lot more butch than that."

He turned around, and tried to fall asleep, tried to not think about whatever the hell was happening. He failed at that goal pretty quickly. I mean, how could he not think about it? His life had completely changed in a single night, and the weird shit that had been occurring throughout his first day was definitely something else.

Whatever was going on, he was terrified of it.

He rolled over, and thought about the one good thing to come out of this whole ordeal: His parents acknowledging him. Even if it was based on something he couldn't understand, it was nice to hear from them after so many years.

And with that, he closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

It didn't last long.

He caught a smell of something in his sleep, and instantly woke up. It was awful, smelling like a mix between an extremely burnt meal, and a dead corpse. As he looked around the apartment, he noticed some kind of black smoke flowing in through every possible opening. Under the door, through the vents, even through the window, even though it was closed.

The rabbit took a breath, and almost instantly started hacking. It was awful, but he managed to get out of bed, and head for the door. He twisted the knob, but it wouldn't budge. It was locked.

Wait, how could it be locked from the outside?

He turned to the window. There was nothing but pure blackness outside of it, visibly twisting like smoke. The only way out was through there. He quickly mustered up all the strength a rabbit could have, and lifted the chair up, quickly tossing it through the glass window. The glass shattered as the chair passed through it, and broke through the smoke, a loud shriek piercing the air as it did.

Judas pulled his ears down as the screech pierced through the air. What the fuck was that!?

Well, the smoke seemed to be clearing at least.

Wait, where's that pounding coming from…?

Oh shit.

He quickly leaped out of the way as the floor beneath him cracked open, a massive, black arm rising from it. It seemed to be made out of smoke. Judas leaped back again as the arm slammed its claws into the ground, barely missing him. And then, another hand burst from the ceiling. And then two more from the walls. They were all reaching for him.

He climbed out of the window, and hung off the edge. He looked down, nothing but pavement below him. "Alright Jude, you've been in worse cases than this." He lied to himself. "Just gotta drop down without goin' splat."

He took a gulp, and prepared to drop down, but heard the sound of glass shattering. Well, it was more like a glass house shattering.

From every window on that side of the apartment, the windows had been broken by massive, smoky tendrils, which seemed to slither across the walls and towards the dangling rabbit. "Guess this isn't a smoke free building, huh?" He nervously joked to himself. He gulped again, and recklessly pushed himself off of the window sill.

There was an explosion, the entire wall in front of him seemed to burst open, revealing a horrifying mass of pure, black smoke. It seemed to only take up the size of the apartment, but who knows what else had been going on inside.

A hand quickly lashed out from the smoke, catching the rabbit in its grasp, and pulling him inwards. Two horrifying bright red eyes shined at him, and it let out a horrific hissing noise that vaguely sounded like a word.

" _ **RRRRAAAAAAABBBBBIIIIIIIIT**_ "

Usually, in life or death situations, Judas would come up with a quick joke or quip to lighten the mood.

Nothing was coming to him.

It was like staring into the void itself, a swirling mass that seemed to exude hatred and death. Its eyes penetrated his very soul, like it could see all the mistakes he had made throughout his miserable life. There had to be a way out of this, right? He always got out of these situations!

The smoke thing pushed itself out of the apartment, revealing its absolutely massive, twisting form. It rose into the air, a blot on the already dark night sky. Judas looked around. He was only a few meters off of the building next door's roof. If he could just get the thing to loosen its grip…

Wait, if it was grabbing him, it had to be solid, right? A sudden, very stupid, idea hit him. Here went nothing.

He opened his mouth wide, and jabbed his large front teeth into the creature's… skin, he supposed. It tore through it rather effectively, the thing letting out a horrible screech as it opened its hand. Judas fell, and hit the roof, one of his bones DEFINITELY cracking as he hit it. It didn't matter, he roughed this stuff out before.

He crawled up quickly, watching as the thing floated towards him. He broke into a sprint, using all his strength to leap over to the net roof. He barely made it, quickly grabbing onto the ledge and climbing up. He glanced back, seeing the thing tear right through the building he was on just seconds ago. The debris seemed to vanish inside of its form.

He should probably keep running.

He kept running, and jumping. After about three jumps of varying success, he looked back again. The thing had frozen in place. Probably too optimistic to assume it had given up, he assumed.

He would be right, as the vortex raised its arm to the sky. It seemed to crackle with electricity. Judas' rabbit ears picked up a very small, but very powerful noise. It sounded like chanting, in a language he had never heard, and it was giving him a headache.

He tried to run, but whatever it was doing was causing him horrible amounts of pain, he could barely even move at this point. But he could look, and what he saw made his stomach sink.

A mass of electricity, built up around the monster's arm. In a surprisingly swift movement, it thrust the hand forward, launching a massive bolt of lightning at the buildings in front of it. It seemed to rip right through them, steadily heading downwards before striking the one he was standing on.

Boom, he was sent flying through the air.

Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as the debris flew around him. The building had simply exploded, not even a burst of flame, it had simply been torn to pieces. As he seemed to float through the air, he went through the good moments in his life. Wasn't an especially long list, but it helped in what he thought would be his final moments.

Then, he found himself no longer falling. He looked up, a tendril of smoke was wrapped around his foot. He let out a weak groan, right before the tendril whipped him back to the creature, which glared at him.

"You coulda just let me die." The rabbit said, unamused. "Might've been the better outcome."

It let out another horrible hiss in response.

" _ **RRRREEEEEETUUUUUUUUUURRRRRNNN**_ "

With that, the thing began to twist and distort, pulling the rabbit in. In a few seconds, the thing had flown a few miles, to an abandoned warehouse. He was quickly tossed to the ground, and slid across the floor. Pretty sure another bone had cracked.

He weakly glanced up. The thing had shrunk down a bit, but was still no less terrifying to look at.

"I know, pretty scary, isn't he?" A voice said.

Judas rolled over onto his back, and looked up, seeing a rather shaggy looking coyote staring down at him. "Who are you?" The rabbit asked.

"Not important." He reached a paw down. "Looks like you could use a lending paw."

Accepting the offer, Judas grabbed onto the coyote's paw. He was quickly thrust upwards and twirled around, before being thrown back to the ground. The rabbit was now wrapped up in chains, which were definitely not there a second ago.

"What the hell?" Judas said, looking at the chains. He looked back to the coyote, who now had a lit cigarette in his mouth. "Who the hell are you?!"

"I'd love to tell you, but if Void's spell gave you a headache, your head would probably explode if I said it." He joked. What the hell was he talking about? He looked back at the rabbit with a glare. "Why don't you just call me Coyote?"

Judas rolled his eyes. "How creative." He sarcastically replied. "I've heard the cops come up with more creative nicknames than that."

"Smart mouth on you, huh?" Coyote said, rather unimpressed. He quickly snapped his claws. Judas felt like something was missing.

"What was that?" He tried to say, only for it to come out as a muffled grunt. He couldn't seem to move his mouth.

He didn't have a mouth.

"Oh wow, that actually worked!" Coyote laughed. "That means… It's actually working!" He let out a laugh, which was shortly interrupted by a hiss.

He looked over, the monster had crawled towards him. Judas could visibly see that even this thing brought fear into him. It let out another hiss.

" _ **PPPPAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYMMEEEEEEEENTTTT**_ "

"Whoa, whoa, not so fast there!" Coyote said, ears lowered. "I'll pay you when all four of you are back, alright? The plan won't work without all four of them!" The twister continued to stare at him, making the coyote even more nervous. "Can't you just go, I dunno, be terrifying somewhere else?"

It kept glaring. The coyote looked around nervously. "I have places to be, you two keep each other company!" He snapped his claws, and disappeared into a green portal that appeared below him.

The thing let out a loud screech as the portal closed.

This was going to be a long night.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 – Lost Property**

"So, why'd you want to meet up?" The small fennec asked as he turned around to face the back of the van.

The van was nearly exactly the same as Nick remembered it. A dusty, awful mattress on the ground, pin-up posters of vixens on the walls. Same Finnick as always.

"This might sound weird, but I…" He reached into his pocket, and pulled out the picture of him and Judy. He looked at it for a moment, making sure it was real. "I need to ask you about her." He turned the picture around, and pointed at Judy. "Do you recognize her?"

"Well, it looks like the bunny cop…"

Yes!

"But I thought he was a guy."

Fuck!

"You too, Finn?" He sighed.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Alright, do you remember the time we swindled Jumbeaux's last year?" He asked. Maybe asking this kind of question would get his memory to… correct itself, or something.

"Yeah, what the fuck does that have to do with that picture?" Finnick asked, growing frustrated.

"Who was the officer that came in?"

"The bunny cop, Judith or whatever." He answered.

Nick rubbed his temples. "Finnick, something weird is going on." Nick tried to explain. "Everyone's forgotten who my real partner is!"

"I thought your partner was the bunny cop?"

"It is!" He yelled. "But it's not Judas, it's JUDY!"

"Isn't Judy a girl's name?"

"THAT'S BECAUSE SHE'S A GIRL!"

"I thought bunny cop was a boy." Finnick said. "Cool she figured it al out though."

"You're… you're not getting it, Finnick!" He said, exasperatedly. "Just the other day, my partner was Judy Hopps, but when I woke up, this criminal named Judas had just… replaced her!"

The fennec looked at him. "I know this sounds completely crazy, but I…" He pulled the picture out again. "I have visual evidence!" The fox pointed towards Judy in the picture. "She was… is real, and I need your help to figure out what happened."

"Are you sure you're not just having a psychotic breakdown?" Finnick asked. "Do you need to go to the hospital, or…?"

"It's not just this, though!" He wasn't sure if explaining this would make Finnick think he was more or less crazy. "Weaselton was dead."

"What!?" Finnick yelled, confused. "When'd he bite it? Please tell me he got sent to the chair again."

"He WAS dead!" Nick emphasized. "I turned away for a minute, and suddenly, he was alive again!" The fennec stared at him again. "Seriously, I saw his guts, on the ground, and a few minutes later, he was back to selling bootlegs! There were officers there, and they were gone when I went back!"

"Let me guess, you don't have proof on this one, do you?" Finnick asked.

"This happened to four other mammals, Finn!" He cleared his throat. "I saw Flash get killed."

"Seriously?" Finnick said, a bit amused. "What killed him?"

"Well it was a, uh…" He paused, thinking of how to best describe the monster. "It was a one-eyed bat with laser vision!"

He slapped himself internally. Good job, Wilde.

Finnick glared at him. "Any other things you want to come up with?" He asked. The fennec was egging him on, but he asked, so…

"There was also this panther, he was there when Flash got brought back to life." He explained. "When me and Judas chased after him, it was suddenly night."

"Aw, I was hoping it'd be something a bit crazier than that." Finn lamented. "Anyway, I'm taking you to the hospital."

"This is serious, Finn!"

"Oh, I know how serious this is." He assured, starting up the van. The fox fell forward onto the grody mattress as the van pulled out of the alley it was parked in.

He crawled up. "I know it sounds crazy, but it's true!" He tried to assure, tears nearly forming in his eyes. Even his own best friend didn't believe him.

"I'm doing this for your own good, Nicky." Finnick said, a bit solemnly. "I knew something like this was going to happen…"

Nick rose to his feet, a bit unsteady as the van rocked back and forth. "Well, I have a rabbit to find!" He said, before kicking the back doors open.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"

"See ya, Finn!" He gave a wave, and jumped out, rolling across the ground. He skidded t a halt, watching as the van drove off. He'd probably be coming around to get him in a minute. Then there was a honk.

He looked to his other side, a large truck was heading for him. Maybe this wasn't the best idea.

He quickly scampered to his feet and leaped out of the way, the truck barely missing him. He leaped out of the way again as a smaller car headed towards him. Pretty soon, he was playing the traffic tango, dancing in between speeding vehicles of all shapes.

He eventually reached the sidewalk, and took a deep breath. It hit him he really had no idea where to start looking for Judy. If she had completely vanished, then obviously he couldn't get any info. That panther probably knew something, but who knows where he had gone.

He stood there for a few seconds, thinking, before he saw the van, tacky side painting and all, park next to him.

Finnick hopped out. "What the fuck are you doing, Nick?!" He yelled, purposely hopping on top of the fox's tail.

He let out a cry of pain as the fennec stomped on his tail, before pulling it back like a rug from under his feet. "I'm serious about all of this, Finnick!" He yelled.

"I can tell, and that's why I'm worried!" The fennec yelled back. "You yelling about this stuff really seriously probably means you believe it!"

"But it's all real, I swear!" He reiterated. "I'm not crazy! I'm not…" His eyes widened, as he watched something rather far away speeding towards them. It had a single light, and as it got closer, there was the sound of an engine.

It was a motorbike heading right towards them.

"JUMP!" Nick yelled.

"What-"

Nick grabbed Finnick, just before the bike hit them. They rolled across the ground, and looked up.

"Aw, I was hopin' to hit that one." The rider said, getting off the bike. The bike itself was a chopper, with several disturbing modifications, like what was probably a very real fox skull tacked on to the front, and several blood-stained spikes hanging off the sides.

The rider was a rabbit, but didn't look normal. It had a mask, looked to be made of rusted steel, bolted directly to his face, only its purple, bloodshot eyes peering through. He was also noticeably more muscular than you'd expect a rabbit to be, and wore what looked like football armor, if football armor was made of steel and spikes. It also had a torn-up suit underneath the armor.

"Yikes, you get hit by a punk convention or something?" Finnick joked as the two got up.

"Did you just try and run us over!?" Nick questioned.

"What the fuck's it seem like, fox boy?" The rabbit said. "Now, I need you to come with me…" He quickly reached for two objects hanging from its legs by holsters. "Or else things are gonna get real messy."

He was pointing guns at them.

"Here's the deal," The rabbit continued. "You become my hostage willingly, or I shoot you in the leg, and take you myself." He glanced over at Finnick. "And I get another trophy. What's it going to be?"

"You do realize you're threatening a police officer right now, right?" Nick asked. "And that all firearms aren't allowed within city limits?"

"Holy shit, you are a hell of a lot like him." The rabbit said in disbelief, not taking his aim off them. "Listen, Wilde, we don't follow your rules where I come from. So, what's it gonna be?"

Nick thought for a second. There wasn't a win here, it was either be kidnapped, or be shot, kidnapped, and have his best friend killed. He wiggled his digits, and glanced at the van. The door was still open. He let out a sigh. "I'll go with you, just let Finnick go."

"Aw, I was hoping you'd put up some resistance." The biker said, sounding genuinely sad. "But I gave you the choice, so get going, fennec."

"Nick-"

"Just go, Finn." Nick said, stepping up to the rabbit on the pavement.

Finnick sighed, and headed for the van, entering it from the opposite side. The other door was still hanging open.

"So, I used to know a rabbit." Nick started, to the rabbit's confusion. "Well, two actually. Maybe you're part of the same family?"

"My family died years ago, fox." The rabbit said. "And since it won't matter anyway, my name's Judge, as in 'your judgement day'."

"Very clever." He quickly glanced over at the van, Finnick had just started it up. "But I don't think you're clever enough."

"What?"

The van quickly passed by, and Nick turned around, leaping through the open door. "What the hell are you doing!?" Finnick yelled, as he had nearly startled the fennec to death.

"GOD DAMN IT!" Judge yelled. "ANOTHER FUCKING FOX TRICK!"

"See ya, sucker!" Nick yelled, quickly waving his paw out of the open window.

"You think you can trick me, huh?" Judge said to himself, hopping onto the bike. "Well, let's see how you deal with this."

"Do you know that guy or something?" Finnick asked, watching in the mirror as he started after them on his bike. "Guy you conned and forgot about maybe?"

"Kind of hard to forget a face like that." Nick said.

"He's right behind us, you know that, right?"

There was a sudden loud bang at the back door.

"I think he's closer than right behind, Finn."

Another loud bang, and the doors flew open. "Did he just shoot my van!?" Finnick yelled.

Nick looked out the open doors. The rabbit was aiming his gun into the van. Directly at Finnick. Without thinking, he jumped out of his seat, and ran to the back of the van. He quickly picked up a baseball bat laying on the ground, and leaped out, landing on the bike. He uneasily stood on the front section, using the fox skull as leverage.

"What the fuck?" The rabbit yelled, as Nick slashed the gun out of his hand with his claws. He swung the bat down, but Judge pulled out a large combat knife and blocked it.

He could feel the bike begin to swerve as the rabbit pulled out something with his other paw. Nick felt something steel plug into his gut. "You do know I have two of these, right?"

Nick gulped.

He swiftly lifted his knee, bringing the gun up a bit, and then slammed the baseball on the rabbit's paw. There was the sound of bones cracking as he yelled in pain and dropped the gun.

Judge pulled his paw back. "You broke my god damn paw, you fuckin' fox!" Judge lashed out with his knife, slashing Nick right in the face. He stumbled, nearly falling off the bike. The fox then swung at the rabbit with the baseball bat, cracking him right in the side of the face. There was a sickening crack, a sound Nick usually knew was a bad sign.

The rabbit shook a bit from the shock of the blow, before letting out a surprisingly threatening growl, lunging forward with the knife. Nick quickly leaped over, and grabbed onto the handle above the seat. Judge jabbed his knife directly into the fox skull, and struggled to pull it out.

Nick dropped the baseball bat with a thud, and swung through the gap under the handle, into the seat. He pushed the rabbit up by his feet, leaving him dangling by the knife from the front. "Alright, just need to figure out how to stop this thing!" Nick said to himself. He looked up, seeing Judge begin to slowly climb back up onto the bike.

How did he do this when he had a bike as a kid? There was a brake handle, right? Oh, there it was, guess it was a universal bike thing. He quickly pressed it inwards, and gripped tight as the bike skid to a halt.

The force of the stop was greater than he had expected, and Judge went flying off… directly into the back of Finnick's van. Great, he just managed to make this worse. How do you start a motorcycle, again? Isn't there a key, or…?

He looked back up, and the van had stopped a few meters away from the bike. He got off, and ran towards it. 'Please, please, please don't hurt Finn!' He repeated in his head as he ran over to the van.

As he reached the doors, they swung open. Judge held Finnick, knife directly to his throat. "Any sudden moves, and he gets it." Judge threatened.

Nick sighed. "Alright, I'll go with you, for real. Just… please don't hurt Finn." He pleaded, genuinely.

"That's more like it." Judge said. He pulled the knife away, and tossed Finnick to the ground.

"Nick," Finnick started, getting up. "Are you seriously willing to go with a psychopath just to protect me?"

"I'm a cop, Finn." He said. "Sometimes, sacrificing yourself is-"

Bang.

Nick fell to the ground screaming, clutching his leg. Judge had just shot him in the leg.

"Oh yeah, did I mention I had a third gun?" Judge mocked, waving the gun around. He hopped out of the van, and somehow managed to lift Nick up on his own, chucking him into the back.

"HEY!" Finnick yelled, watching as Judge climbed into the front seat. "YOU'RE GONNA GET BLOOD ALL OVER MY BED!"

Nick felt his leg. He had been shot, surprisingly precisely, right through the heel. He was completely incapable of moving it. He had only one defense left.

Talking.

"Where are you taking me?" Nick asked. "Are you one of Mr. Big's goons?"

"Nope."

"The wolf pack, maybe?" He guessed. "You have the bike thing down."

"Nadda."

"Did I scam you at some point before? Maybe sold you some bad face cream?"

Judge let out a chuckle. "If you think I'm weird, wait 'til you see who I work for!" He laughed. "And the company he keeps, a bunch of grade A loons! Wonder why a guy like that would want you and your partner, though."

"Partner…?" He said to himself. "Is it Judy?" For once, being shot in the foot and captured by a psychotic biker might have been a… somewhat good thing!

"How should I know, I wasn't the one sent on a rabbit chase." Judge replied. "I do feel bad for those rabbits though, the two he sent after them were terrifying!"

Well, that sounded bad. This guy was terrifying enough, what could possibly be worse than a psycho with guns? Then, Nick thought of something. "So, you need us… alive?" He asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." The rabbit said. "It's gonna be worth it, though. I just know it."

With a bit of quiet, Nick had time to fully think over some of the odd things the rabbit had said. "So, you said you come from a place that doesn't follow laws," He started. "Where's that? Brisbane?"

"Oh, I come from much, much farther than that." He laughed.

"And you mentioned that you lost your family?" He continued. "Is that a metaphorical losing your family, or is it literal?"

"Absolutely literal."

He cringed a bit. "And, uh, you mentioned that I reminded you of someone. Who was it?"

"Just an old friend." Judge answered, somewhat sarcastically. "All you're really missing is that you have both your eyes and arms!" He laughed at his own joke, and then let out a sneer. "If you want, I could take them for you."

"I'd prefer to have both of those still on my person, but thanks."

"You are a lot more talkative than him, though." Judge continued. He seemed to enjoy talking about… whoever this was. "Maybe you just haven't lost the optimism yet." He laughed. "You will shortly, though."

Nick took that as a sign to shut up. None of this was helping, and he was just kind of feeling worse about everything.

After that, there was silence for a good half hour, as they continued to drive. Nick was left with his thoughts. Was Judy alright? Was it even Judy, or was he just being too optimistic? He could at least mostly confirm that she wasn't dead if they needed him alive.

Wait, did he say there were two rabbits? Who else could they be? Thoughts were swirling through his head as he tried to stop his leg from bleeding out. Finnick was right to be worried, bloodstains were hard to get out of mattresses.

"Alright," Judge finally said, the van suddenly halting. "We're here."

He hopped into the back of the van, and lifted the fox over his shoulder, kicking open the back doors. Nick swivelled his neck around, trying to figure where they were. It was outside an abandoned warehouse, by the looks of it. One with a massive hole plugged through the wall.

They entered through the hole, and Judge tossed him to the ground. "Alright, Coyote, I got the mark." He said into the darkness of the warehouse.

Nick looked around. It was mostly empty, but he could see something a few meters off. It was another rabbit, wrapped in chains. "Judy!?" He cried.

The rabbit awkwardly shuffled around in the chains. It was Judas. "What the hell are you doing here?" He asked. Wordlessly, the rabbit nudged his head, motioning towards the corner.

Nick looked over, all he could see in the corner was darkness. Well, it was a much deeper darkness than the rest of the building, which was… off-putting.

"Where the hell is that mutt?" Judge said. Suddenly, there was the sound of a large rip. Nick looked over, watching as a green vortex ripped itself into reality. Out of it stepped a shaggy looking, well, coyote.

"Finally, took you long enough." He said, a bit smugly. "So, you ready to go do the ritual?"

"You never said anything about a ritual." Judge said, crossing his arms.

"Well, it's less a ritual, and more…" He shrugged. "Eh, you'll see soon enough."

"Who the hell are you?" Nick asked, looking up at the coyote.

"Name's Coyote to you single dimensional beings." He said. "Make fun of it, and you'll end up like your friend over there."

Nick looked back at Judas. He was absolutely miserable looking. "What did you do to him?" Nick asked. Coyote chuckled, and waved his paw. The rabbit seemed to move across the ground, like the ground itself was moving him, until he was right next to the fox.

Up close, Nick's question was answered. Judas simply did not have a mouth anymore. Where it was once was, was instead a patch of fur matching up with the rest of his face.

"Okay, I ask again, what did you do o him!?" Nick yelled.

"Yeesh, takes a long time for you lower lifeforms to catch on, huh?" Coyote then noticed the bleeding wound. He sighed, and looked over to the rabbit. "Seriously? He could've died."

"I needed to stop him from hitting me in the head with a goddamn baseball bat!"

"Hmm, can't have you like that." Coyote said. He kneeled, and rubbed his paw over the wound. It started off hurting like hell, but quickly turned into a sting, before, eventually, he couldn't feel anything.

Nick tried to move his leg. It was perfectly fine now. "How did you…?"

"Consider it payment for any past and future inconveniences." He said, before snapping his claws. Cloth suddenly appeared around Nick, wrapping him up into a near mummy, only his head visible.

He groaned as he tried to break free, but he could tell it was useless. "Ugh, should've seen that one coming."

"OH MAN!" Coyote let out joyously. "Time for the day I've been waiting for years to achieve!" He snapped his claws again, summoning another green portal. "Judge, Void, we got business to attend to!"

Who was "Void"?

Nick found out soon enough, as he watched the darkness from the corner spring to life, a massive swirling vortex of dark smoke. It lifted the mouthless Judas into the air, and crawled through the portal.

"What the hell was that?" Nick asked. He had just realized how much questioning he had done, but he really had nothing else to say.

"One frightening son of a bitch, is what it is." Judge said, lifting the wrapped-up Nick onto his shoulders. He strolled into the portal. There was a flash.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 – The Universal**

Nick opened his eyes, and felt around. He wasn't wrapped up anymore, but what his eyes saw made that feel a lot less good than it should've been. He sat up to get a better look at his surroundings… which wasn't very much.

For one, it seemed like wherever he was, it was floating somewhere in the middle of outer space, as he could see stars cracking through the windows. For two, it was definitely some kind of building, a large, probably formerly very regal looking palace. Whatever it once was, it was now ruined beyond belief, lots of parts of it simply shattered and floating.

The palace seemed to be made of multiple ring like structures, reaching up high into the sky. So high, in fact, that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see the top. Each ring that made up the building had eight of those green portals connected to it. Above each portal was a plaque, each varying in quality, that showed some sort of bizarre series of symbols.

He looked around at where, exactly, he was sitting. Some kind of floating rock in the middle of it, with nine different pathways connecting to it. Eight of the pathways connected to their respective portals, while one trailed off into the distance, leading to a door that visibly had nothing connected to it.

He rubbed his head. This had to be a bad nightmare, right? The entire day had felt like this, of course, but now felt like the absolute breaking point for him. He stood up, and turned around, spotting the bodies of three other unconscious animals. One was definitely Judas, who had his mouth back, while the other two were a female fox and… and…

It was Judy.

He quickly rushed over to her, she was definitely asleep. He shook her. "Judy!" He yelled, trying to get her to wake up. "Judy, please wake up!" She rolled over, and uneasily opened her eyes. "Oh thank god you're-"

She screamed in absolute terror, and quickly kicked the fox off. Where he thudded against the floor. He looked up. "Judy? What's… what's wrong?"

"Stay back!" She yelled, backing away. "Don't come any closer!" She soon backed up into what seemed like an invisible green forcefield.

"Judy, It's me, Nick!" He said, pleadingly. "Don't tell me you forgot who I am."

"Nick…?" She said to herself. She flashed back. To the nightmare. To the museum. "I… I thought you were my friend, Nick!" She was nearly in tears. "Why did you do that to me…"

"What?" He said, a bit panicked. "What did I do!?"

She panted, and felt her neck. "You hurt me… you hurt my family…" She fell to the ground.

"I didn't… I wouldn't…"

"Ugh, can you quit it with the yapping?" Moaned Judas as he sat up. His eyes widened, and felt at his mouth. "Oh thank goodness, I can talk again."

There was another moan, Nick watching as the other fox, Nicole, rose. "What the…?" She said, looking around. "Where are we?"

Judas shrugged in response. "Looks like a bad sci-fi set to me."

Nicole's ears perked up. "Judy! Where's…" She turned to the cowering rabbit, as well as the depressed fox, who was now down on his knees. Nicole rushed over, Judy letting out another terrified scream as she got close. The fox stepped back, and tried to talk to Nick. "Um, Nick, right?" She asked.

"Nicholas Wilde, the guy who can't keep his life in check for a year." He said, sounding utterly depressed.

"This isn't your fault." She assured. The other fox looked at her, skeptically. "There was this fox lady, before we came here." She started to explain. "She said something about Judy's darkest fears. I think she might've been…"

"Traumatized?" Nick finished. He slumped down some more. This wasn't really helping.

There was the sudden sound of a door slamming open, and all three sound of mind mammals turned to watch as something flew out of it.

"Oh, MAN!" The things said cheerfully as it whipped around the palace. It crashed into the ground, right next to Judy. It was a fox lady in a long red and gold robe. She tapped on the force field, causing Judy to turn around. With another scream of fear, she fell backwards, the fox bursting into mad laughter.

"I didn't realize I got her that bad!" She laughed. "She doesn't even know what's real and what's not anymore!"

"Who are you!?" Nick yelled. "What did you do to Judy!?"

"Oh, you know, tormented her a bit using a repressed fear, pretty simple stuff." She calmly replied, a sly grin creeping across her muzzle. She looked down at the cowering rabbit. "Judy Hopps, so brave, so noble…" She started, putting on an over dramatic voice. "A hero to all, a beacon of light for both predators and prey." A grin crept across her face and she burst out laughing again. "Now she's just a scared little bunny rabbit!"

She turned to Nick. "You found her… alluring, didn't you?" She said to him, with an eerie grin. "Now she hates you. How does that feel?"

Nick was visibly shaking, both with sorrow and anger. He clenched his paws and took a deep breath. "Who. Are. You."

"The name is Lady Kitsuneki!" She announced. "Goddess of fear, master of all the undead! My friends call me 'Lady K'."

"Enough of the dramatics, K." A voice sounded from the door. They turned to watch as Coyote stepped through, quickly followed by Hunter and Judge. "You're making it seem like you're the one in charge."

A second later, the horrible smoke monster crawled through the door as well, and began hovering around. The three walked to the center platform.

"So, what do you guys think," Lady K started. "Did I do amazing, or spectacularly?"

"I really do not care." Coyote admitted.

"Oh come on, I thought you were a trickster!" Lady K said, sliding through the air and wrapping around Coyote. "Where's your sense of fun?"

"I would normally find you traumatizing that rabbit absolutely hilarious, don't get me wrong." He quickly grabbed her by the robe, and threw her to the ground. "But right now, I'm trying to take things seriously."

"Party pooper." She muttered.

"Can somebody, for the love of god, please tell us what the hell is going on here!?" Judas finally snapped. "We've been dealing with weird bullshit over the last two days, and I think we deserve an explanation!"

"You want an explanation, carrot face?" Coyote started, stepping up to the force field. "You wanna know just what's going on?" He snapped his claws, and reappeared within the force field, startling the three mammals. "I'm actually amazed none of you have figured it out by now! Maybe it's because your smaller minds can't comprehend it!"

He snapped his claws, the four mammals suddenly appearing in front of him as he knelt. None of them could seem to move, no matter how hard they struggled. The deliriously rabbit struggled especially hard, out of pure fear.

"To put it in layman's terms, I am a god." He started to explain. "I go by many names, Loki, Chaos, Bill…"

"Bill?" Nick said, a bit amused. "Where'd that come from."

"None of your business, foxtrot." The coyote interjected. "Right now, I go by Coyote. I'm a God of Space, I can control observable space, make physical objects, manipulate them if I want." He demonstrated this by waving his paw around, a large ball of dirt suddenly materializing above them. "But, there's a catch!" He gripped his paw, causing the ball to implode.

"I can only be god powerful in this forsaken PRISON REALM!" He howled, absolutely furious. He took a deep breath, and calmed down, rubbing a paw over his head. "But, I also have to power to travel between different realities. Alternate universes, if you will. And as it turns out, the more I disrupt them, the more power I get outside of here!"

He vanished for a second, before Nick and Nicole felt themselves being lifted. "And that's where you four come in." He started, his voice growing a bit more sinister. "See, what you thought was just weird coincidences, actually weren't!"

He tossed them into the air, where they started floating. "What does that mean?" Nick asked.

"Can you seriously not get this through your thick skull?" Coyote said. "You two aren't just two random foxes," The two suddenly slammed into each other. "You don't just coincidentally share the same last name," They slammed into each other again. "And you aren't long lost relatives either!" Another slam, and the two were pulled down into the coyote's face.

"You two are the exact same, the same mammal from two parallel Earths!"

The two looked at each other, and burst out laughing. "Seriously?" Nicole said, amused. "Is that the best you could come up with?"

Coyote stared at them, unamused. "You two have the exact same DNA, the only difference separating you is a chromosome." He snapped his fingers, causing the two to shut their mouths. "Did you ever wonder why the world just suddenly changed for a single day, Nicole?" He asked. "Suddenly there could be a predator on the force, and there were no more of those shock collars." He grabbed her by the throat, and pulled her in.

"That was me, I did that."

He dropped her to the ground. "I brought you and the rabbit to the other fox and rabbit's universe to cause a bit of trouble with reality, meaning I could get more power."

Nick could finally open his mouth again. "Why us?" He asked. "What part do we, specifically, play in your little power play?"

"Oh, not much really." He stated. "I was just gonna let the Cleaners fix everything up after that day and move on to another universe. But then…"

Nick suddenly dropped to the ground as the coyote started laughing. "Well, there was a bit of a screw-up." He started to explain. "The Cleaners aren't very bright, and seemed to mistake your rabbit for the vixen's. Turns out, that little mistake gave me more power. So, I decided to stick around, and throw you four around a bit more."

"And what exactly does that entail?" Nick asked.

"Simple, I'm gonna toss you all into different universes, that'll cause a real stir in the equilibrium of reality!"

He snapped his claws again, and reappeared outside the force field. "Alright, let's get this party started!"

The four could find themselves able to move again. Judy immediately dashed off to the corner. "Great," Judas started. "We're stuck in the middle of cosmic events, exactly how I wanted to start my week."

"Judas, you're an idea guy, do you have any idea of what to do?" Nicole asked him, almost pleading.

"I'm sorry, Nicky, I'm not good at dealing with this kind of stuff!" He apologized.

Nick looked over at Judy, who was still cowering. "I need to talk to her." He said.

"That's just going to make it worse!" Nicole yelled.

"It's the only choice I have!"

He rushed over to the rabbit, and forcibly grabbed her paws in his. "Judy…" She rapidly kicked him in the stomach. "Judy, please, whatever you think happened…" A kick to his snout. "It didn't happen! It was just a nightmare!" A few more kicks to his face.

"NICK!" Nicole yelled. "THAT'S NOT HOW YOU DEAL WITH A TRAUMATIZED MAMMAL!"

He quickly pulled the rabbit into an embrace, wrapping his arms around her. He spoke softly. "Please, we need you."

She calmed down a bit, but was still breathing heavily. Judy looked at the fox for a moment. Suddenly, her fear seemed to subside. "Nick?" She said.

"Are you… hugging me?"

His eyes widened, and he dropped her to the floor. "Nope, totally wasn't." She scoffed in response.

The rabbit got to her feet, and looked around at the bizarre location. "Where are we?" She asked, placing her paws to her hips.

"Do you seriously not remember anything?" Nicole asked. "Like, nothing about the last two hours?"

She shook her head. "I remember the lights going out, and getting out of my hospital bed, then…" She paused for a second. "Nothing."

"You were at a hospital?" Nick asked, a bit worried. "Are you okay?"

The rabbit patted at her chest. Nothing seemed to hurt anymore. In fact, everything seemed to have cleared up, including the rips on her clothes. Wait, she had been in a hospital gown before, how did her nightwear get back on?

"Can any of you explain what's going on?"

All three of them shrugged and shook their heads. She sighed in frustration.

"Well, we have a, uh…" Judas started, and tried to find the right word. "Vague, kind of understanding about this?"

She waved his hands at him. "Can you just tell me!?"

"It's pretty ridiculous, Carrots." Nick started, crossing his arms. "I've seen some weird stuff today, and I don't entirely buy it myself."

"You ever hear of alternate universe theory, Judy?" Nicole asked, stepping up to the rabbit.

"Isn't that just a thing from bad sci-fi shows?" The rabbit said.

"Apparently it's a real thing." The vixen continued. "And this is some kind of… in between universe that coyote guy over there lives in."

Judy turned around, seeing the five odd characters. Four of them seemed to just be standing around, while the coyote Nicole spoke of stood in one spot, a rather intense feeling coming from him. His arms were raised, and he was motioning his paws around rapidly.

"Sooo, alternate universes?" Judy said, a bit confused. She shrugged. "That certainly explains some odd things that I've seen." He ears perked up again, and she looked at the male rabbit. "Wait does that mean…"

"Yeah, we're the same person or something." Judas nonchalantly said. "Let's try to ignore that for now."

"Good idea."

"So, basically, that guy is going to throw us all around different universes, and something something, everything ever might implode." Nick haphazardly explained. He clasped his paws together, hopeful "So, got a plan?"

She looked at him, a real "are you an idiot" look.

Judas sighed. "You need to give her a bit more than that." He quickly pushed the fox aside. "There's a door behind those five, and we're surrounded by a forcefield. One of those monsters is a horrible smoke monster thing."

"Another one's a real Darth Vader wannabe." Nicole followed.

Nick rubbed at his leg, feeling the area that had been shot. "There's a masked guy with guns, real asshole."

"And there's a fox lady who captured you." Nicole explained. "I don't know what she is."

"Door, forcefield, villains, portals…" They could see the gears starting to turn in the rabbit's head. "I can work with this, I just might need some help."

"I think we all want to get out of here," Judas started. "So, we're all in." The foxes nodded.

"Alright," Judy said, huddling the group together. "Here's the plan…"

Meanwhile, Coyote was still shifting his arms around. "What the hell are you doing, anyway?" Judge asked.

"Shush!" Coyote snapped without looking at him. "This is a very, very delicate process, I need to find the exact right places for each of them…"

"THEN do we get payed!?" Hunter sounded, stepping to the coyote. "Because my patience is wearing thin."

"Ooh, a super hero universe!" The coyote sounded, ignoring the mechanical beast. "Wait, it's a crossover universe, yuck." He swiped his paw away.

"Looks like the trickster's locked up in his own business." Lady K said to the frustrated bounty hunter. "We'll get payed eventually, just hold on to your lightsaber."

Hunter growled, and stepped back from the coyote.

"Musical universe?" Coyote said to himself. "Bit similar, but could be interesting. Gonna save that."

He continued swiping his paws at thin air for a second. "Ah, there we go!" He said, pulling a paw down. "The thriller universe, perfect!" He swiped his paw again, and the four other villains watched as a large green portal descended from above. It started spinning around the central platform.

"Oh, so that's what he's doing." Judge said, polishing a knife. "Something about universes or whatever."

"Oh, I like that one!" The coyote said to himself, swiping another paw. A second green portal fell from the sky, and began circling around the platform. "Oh, that one seems interesting, and that one is amusing." He swiped his paws again, and two more portals fell. "Alright, done!"

He clapped his paws, and the portals suddenly stopped rotating, each one stopping at one of the platforms.

"Now, time to round up some vermin." Coyote said, smugly, turning to the prison. Three of the captured mammals were simply sitting around, while the terrified rabbit was once again huddled away from them at the back. "Boy, this'll be easy."

He snapped his claws, and appeared in the forcefield prison. He turned to the fox, who looked up at him with a nonchalant glare.

"Alright fox, hope you enjoy your little trip!" He bared his arms, and reached for the fox.

"Why are you going with me first?"

The coyote stopped and stared at the fox. "Because you're the first one I saw." He answered.

"Well, I think that's a bad idea." Nick said. "Think about it for a second."

Coyote placed a claw to his chin. The fox, this one specifically, had been a tricky son of a bitch in every universe. If he took him out of the field, he could attempt an escape. He had a point, but it could very well be a trick.

He kneeled to the fox to look him directly in the eye. "Are you suggesting I take someone else first?" He asked. "Why?"

"Well, you have us beaten, right?" Nick started. "You've got the only one who could get us out of here completely wrecked, and if any of us manage to escape, that'd just be another setback for you."

He glared at the fox, his expression not changing. He let out a heavy breath form his nose. "You make a point, fox." He stood up, and turned towards the shivering, cowering rabbit at the back. He quickly grabbed her by the neck, and teleported out of the prison.

"It's alright, rabbit." He said to her, as he walked towards one of the portals. "I'm not gonna hurt you… but I don't know about anyone on the other side of this thing." He laughed, and then swung his arm forward.

Quickly, Judy grabbed onto his sleeves as his arm went up. She used the momentum to launch herself into the air, much to the surprise of the coyote. She spun around, and used the force to kick the unprepared god in the back of his very physical head, sending him to the ground snout-first.

She landed on the ground, and looked back at the forcefield. It quickly blinked, and then petered out. "Wow, that was actually easier than I thought it was going to be."

She quickly turned to the group of villains. They were all laughing. "Wow, Coyote," Lady K started. "I didn't know you were a god of slap stick!" They were distracted by Coyote being humiliated, leaving the exit wide open.

"Way easier than I thought."

She quickly ran to the center platform, and motioned for the other three to follow her. They nodded, and rushed towards the door.

Coyote pounded his fists into the ground, and twisted his head around to the four laughing villains. His eyes dilated, and eventually turned entirely black. He quickly rose and turned to the four, who fell silent. He seemed to glow green as he enlarged, twisted spikes suddenly rising from his fur.

"GET THEM!" He roared. "OR I'LL REDUCE YOU TO YOUR COMPONENT ELEMENTS, AND SCATTER YOU ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE!"

The four, obviously terrified, turned to door, seeing the four smaller mammals right at the large, ornate door.

Nick gave an awkward wave to them as Judy and Nicole tried to open up the door. The two swung the door open, and the four quickly rushed in. The villains raced to the door, and quickly stampeded through.

There was a bright flash, and the four emerged in…

In a mansion?

It was a rather regal looking manor, fully furnished, and pearly white, only broken up by various paintings and red carpets.

"Wow, pretty swanky place." Judas sounded. He stepped up to one of the paintings. It was a portrait of Coyote, riding on top of a white horse. "Décor could be a bit better, though."

"Didn't he say something about not liking this place?" Nicole pointed out. "This place is great, why would he not like it?"

"Maybe it's weird god stuff." Nick said.

"I'm still very lost." Judy said. "But what I do know, is that those four are coming for us, so we gotta find a way out of here!"

Nick turned around. "I'm not sure that will be a problem, Carrots." He said. Judy turned around as well, seeing that there wasn't a door behind them anymore, only a hallway.

"What?" She looked around, confused. "But we came in this way, there had to have been…" She paused, huffed, and turned to the fox. "This makes no sense."

"You don't even know the half of it, cottontail." Judas sounded.

"Yeah, this stuff is only the tip of the iceberg compared to the stuff we've been through today." Nick explained.

"What else happened?" She asked, curious. "I don't feel like running into a literal god is just the tip."

"Well, uh…" Nick wanted to tell her, he needed to tell her. But how would she feel about it? The news of no longer existing could probably be mentally scarring. "Um, well, you…"

"What the fox is trying to say," Judas rather rudely interrupted. "Is that you no longer exist."

"Very graceful, Jude." Nick said sarcastically.

The rabbit stared at them. "What does that even mean?" She asked. She turned to Nicole. "You can still see me, right?"

"Yep!" Nicole responded, walking over and tugging at the rabbit's ears, to her annoyance. "Can still feel you too."

"Don't do that." She said, the fox backing away. "I'm still here, so obviously I still exist."

"It's… It's not like that." Nick said. "I woke up one morning, and suddenly everything about you was gone."

Her ears lowered a bit.

"Something made me take your place in your… universe, I guess?" Judas explained. "There's probably some science-y mumbo jumbo explanation for it."

"I still don't believe you." She said sternly, crossing her arms. Well, she did, but she refused to believe it. "We need to get ourselves home, alright?" She said, trying to ignore the previous conversation. "If we get everyone back in their correct universes, then everything should be fixed right up, right?"

"Sound logic." Nicole said. "But… how are we supposed to find the way back in here?"

"All of the weird, dimensionally portals were back in that place." The male rabbit sounded. "And if we head back there, we'll be mincemeat for sure."

"Well, we're gonna have to do some police work." She suggested.

"And that entails…?" Nicole asked.

"Eavesdropping."

"Whoa, whoa." Nick interjected. "You mean eavesdropping on the super-powered monsters that are chasing us?" He asked, dumbfounded. "Are you sure you're still all there, Carrots?"

"What other choice do we have?" She said. "It's either that, run around here for who knows how long, or get killed!"

"I don't suppose you have anything better planned, other Wilde?" Nicole asked, a bit smugly.

"First, just call me Nick." He started. "Second… no, I do not."

"So let's go with the cottontail's plan." Judas suggested. "I think it works pretty well."

Judy nodded. "All four of us are smaller than most of them, it'll just require a bit of hide and seek."

"Let me guess," Nick started, a bit sarcastically. "We're going to be doing both, aren't we?"

Judy nodded, and the fox let out a groan.

"Alright, so we went through the door," Judge started. "And somehow we didn't end up right behind them?"

"Took you this long to realize that, huh, Masky?" K joked, floating next to the masked rabbit.

"Don't call me that." He replied, swinging a pistol into the fox's face. "I'm very sensitive about my looks."

"Quit your arguing." Hunter growled, turning to the two, much smaller mammals. "Coyote wants us to capture them, so we will."

"But this place is, like, infinitely massive!" K complained. "How are we supposed to find them?"

"We look."

The two groaned. "We've been doing that for hours!" K bemoaned.

"Couldn't Coyote come along and at least help us out a bit?" Judge asked. "It is his weird interdimensional mansion."

There was a sudden rumbling, and the four turned to look at a nearby painting. It seemed to display Coyote riding on a horse. The painting shook, and the image twisted, turning into a black hole. Coyote leaped out of it.

"Oh, there he is."

"Sorry it took me so long; this place gets bigger every time I come here." He apologized.

"Why didn't you follow us through the door?" K asked.

"I did." He said frankly. "Every time the door is opened, it leads to a different part of the mansion. I ended up in lounge room number three hundred and eighty-five."

"Why do you need so many lounge rooms?" Judge asked.

"I don't make the layout, alright?"

He dusted himself off, and looked around. "I see you haven't actually captured any of them yet."

"Haven't even seen hide nor tail of them yet." Hunter mechanically said.

"Well, we need to find them before they get back to the portal room." Coyote explained. "If they manage to get there, they might be able to find a way back to their universes."

Meanwhile, as the five villains continued to talk, they seemed to be unaware of the four mammals hiding under a nearby couch.

"Hear that?" Judy whispered to the fox next to her. "The portal room, we just need to find that, and we'll be able to get out of here!"

"Great idea, let's go run around a literally infinite place, hopelessly looking for this one room!" Nick replied, in a cheerfully sarcastic way. Judy scowled at him.

"Not like they'd ever find it." Judge laughed. "We've been here for hours, and haven't even found a bathroom!"

"Yeah, I actually have markings leading to it." Coyote quickly said. The villains looked at him. "Oh, like you're the only ones who get lost in this place. That room is actually important, of course I'd have a way to get there myself. Follow the paintings, and you'll find it."

"Why do you have a portal room when you have that big temple?" K asked. "The temple is so much more impressive."

"I use it when I have guests over and need to hide how evil I am." He thought for a second. "I think the portals in there should actually lead to their universes."

"Well, that was unexpected." Nick whispered as the rabbit gave him a smug grin.

"Alright, let's sneak out of here." Judy ordered, the three others giving a slight nod. They shifted around, and quickly ran out from under the couch.

"RAAAAAABBBIIIIIT" The void monster sounded, having spotted them.

Hunter quickly swivelled around, a blaster popping out of its arm, aiming it towards the mammals as they ran around a corner. "Get them!" Hunter yelled, before feeling a paw tap him on the back.

"Actually," Coyote said. "Everything's going perfectly. Let them go."

"What?" Hunter turned back to the coyote. "But you ordered us to capture them."

"We will!" He said. "I got a plan, don't you worry." He quickly climbed up into the painting, and motioned for the four to follow him.

Hunter growled as the coyote slid into the black void.

"Are they following us!?" Nick yelled as the four ran down the hallway.

Nicole quickly looked back, and skid to a halt. "Um, no, they aren't."

The other three stopped, and also turned around. Sure enough, none of the villains had been chasing them. "Well, that's odd." Nick said.

"Maybe they actually didn't notice us!" Judas said, sounding a bit too hopeful.

"They probably didn't!" Judy said. "We're home free!"

The four pumped their fists into the air, and quickly began following the paintings.

The mansion was strange and bizarre, hallways leading to staircases that in turn lead to what seemed like pointless rooms. Things seemed to begin twisting into stranger shapes as they travelled farther from where they had started.

"Staircases aren't supposed to go sideways, right?" Nick asked.

They looked at a staircase, which seemed to corkscrew to the side, and then downwards. Or, well, if there was a down. Unfortunately for them, a series of paintings seemed to circle it.

"Guess they do here, other Wilde." Nicole answered.

The four quickly rushed up the stairs, finding their gravity began shifting to match the steps. "Good thing I don't have vertigo." The fox quipped.

After a bit more running through physics defying architecture, the four found themselves lead to the outside of a door. On both sides were paintings of Coyote, each one pointing towards the large door with a smug grin on his muzzle.

"Think this is it?" Judas asked, a bit out of breath.

"This is where the paintings end." Judy said, looking around. "And I don't know about you, but those paintings make it pretty obvious."

"Alright!" Nick yelled out in joy, rushing up to the door. "Let's get in there, get out of here, head home, and forget any of this ever happened."

The other three nodded, and then helped grip onto the doors, pulling both open. With a sigh of relief, they rounded the two massive doors.

And found Coyote and the other villains looking at them.

"Well, if it isn't the dumb single dimensional beings." He joked, waving his paw. The four suddenly found themselves pulled into the room, and the door shut behind them.

"How did you know where we were going!?" Judy yelled.

"Pssh, please." The god scoffed. "I know where everybody is at any time, so I knew you were hiding under that couch."

"Then why did you tell us how to get here?" Nick asked, a bit confused.

"Duh, it was a trap. If I got you all there, you'd probably have scattered." He explained. "Now I have you all stuck in this one room, ripe for the picking!"

Judy suddenly found herself lifted into the air by Lady K, while Judas was grasped by the void monster. Nicole was quickly grabbed with little effort by hunter, and Nick suddenly found a knife to his throat.

"But, you assholes bungled up my original plan, so I suppose I'll have to improvise." Coyote said to himself, scratching at his chin. He turned to look at the two swirling portals behind him. "Hm, breaking you four even more might be fun." He pointed towards the left portal. "K, Hunter, toss the female ones into there."

The two villains complied. Hunter, with a single arm, tossed the fox right through it. Lady K, however, danced through the air, and let out a laugh, before chucking Judy through the swirling vortex.

"Void, Judge," He pointed towards the other portal. "Throw the other two through there."

Void stared at the rabbit for a moment, before thrusting its arm through the portal, pulling it out with nothing in its hand.

"Alright, fox." Judge said, dragging Nick over to the portal. "I feel like we'll be seeing each other very soon, but see ya for now!" He quickly pulled the knife away, and kicked the fox through the portal with one of his legs.

"Alright, Coyote." Hunter said, turning to the god. "We've done what you've asked, it's time for payment."

"Yeah, we've actually done more than you asked!" Lady K yelled. "Hand over the rewards."

"Ugh, fine." He moaned. Coyote snapped his claws again. "There, when you head to your own universes, you'll have everything you've ever wanted. Power, money, food, more power, you know the deal."

"Good, I can't spend a minute more with this alternate universe shit." Judge sounded.

"Don't worry, I'll get you home in a second." Coyote assured. "But, if the need arises, I may call on you again."

"Unless you have more to offer us," Hunter sounded. "Don't even bother."

"Oh, trust me. I will…"


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13 – Night and Day**

Nick jolted up, and looked around.

Where were they?

It was… a field. It looked like they were in Savannah Central. Somewhere in it, at least. It was around midday, by the looks of things. They were near a set of buildings, mostly apartments, but cars were going by. For once, everything seemed… normal.

Well, aside from the still very much out of place rabbit next to him.

Judas sat up on the field, and examined it as well. "So," He started. "Are we in my world, or your world right now?"

"I don't know." Nick said, getting up. "Is there any way to tell?"

"Obviously not." Judas said, also getting up. "It took us until just a few hours ago to realize what's even going on."

"Speaking of," Nick started up. "We need to do something about that Coyote guy."

"Oh, like what?" Jude said, mockingly. "How do you expect us to do something about an evil god?"

"I don't think we can, but we…" He paused for a second. "We need to at least warn everyone. We need to go the station and tell Bogo."

"Uh, excuse me?" Jude began getting right into the fox's face. "And you expect him to believe us?"

"Well, I…"

"And what if this isn't your world?" He asked, backing away. "What if this is my world, and we end up walking into the station, and getting arrested!"

"Arrest you, you mean." Nick retorted. "You're the master criminal, Bucky."

"Yeah, and you're not wearing a Tame Collar." He returned. "And don't call me Bucky."

And bingo, Nick had a new nickname for him.

Wait, what was that about a Tame Collar?

"Can you repeat that?"

"Don't call me Bucky."

"No, before that."

What, you mean about the Tame Collar?"

"Yes!" Nick gestured at him. "What is that?"

Judas started laughing as he walked away. "Buddy, you don't want to know."

"Actually, I do!" the fox said, following after the rabbit. "What kind of world do you come from?!"

"A world that you don't want to be a part of, fox."

* * *

As soon as the stepped into the station, they knew something was wrong.

It looked the same, but there was something missing. A crucial component of what made entering the ZPD inviting.

Clawhauser was gone.

Instead, in his place at the receptionist desk, was a very surly looking female antelope, who was too busy looking at her phone to even bother looking at them.

"Told you this was a bad idea." Jude whispered as they walked in. He was completely correct about that, of course, but Nick still needed to try and get this info out.

He walked up to the desk, and pulled himself up a bit. "Excuse me?" He was greeted with only a grunt. "Uh, I'd like to speak with Chief Bogo, this is really important."

"I'll buzz him up." She said, completely apathetic. "Eventually."

"Clawhauser would've called him up right now."

"Who?" She responded, finally looking at him. Her eyes went wide as she looked at him. She quickly slammed a hoof on the intercom. "We have a collarless predator in the station! I repeat, we have a collarless predator in the station!"

She glanced over at the rabbit.

"And he's accompanied by Judas Hopps!"

Suddenly, an alarm started blaring, and the two were almost instantly surrounded by cops. As Nick looked at the crowd, he noticed a few odd things. For one, there wasn't a single predator in the group. He recognized a lot of them, Rhinowitz, Higgins, Trunkaby… but mammals like Wolford, Grizzoli, and Fangmeyer were just missing.

The other odd thing is that, in their place, were a number of different prey species… including a few rabbits. They definitely were not in his world.

"So, hey guys!" Nick started, nervously. "How's everyone doing?" He reached for his pocket. "Now, this is a simple misunderstanding, I have something that will…" He felt around in his pocket. It was empty. He checked the other one, still empty.

…Where did his wallet go?

He must've dropped it at some point during all the fuss with Coyote. Great, now how was he supposed to show them his badge?

A moment later, the crowd parted, and the large form of Bogo entered into view. He was giving them the look. The look of complete disdain that he only glared when someone had royally fucked up. Which they indeed had.

"So, I see you finally decided to turn yourself in, Hopps." He snorted at them, crossing his arms.

"Don't blame me, it was his idea." Judas said, nudging Nick.

"Who's this?" Bogo asked, eyeing the fox. "Doesn't look like your normal partner."

"I'm, uh…" He thought for a second. Usually he needed more time to come up with an excuse, but he was short on that. "I'm Nicole's brother!" He lied.

"Nicole doesn't have a brother."

"…Newly just now adopted brother who was dragged here against his will by this criminal!"

"Are you seriously trying to throw me under the bus!?" Judas yelled at him.

"I'm not the one who's a criminal!"

"Well you are now!"

"For what!? I've done nothing illegal for the last year!"

The crowd of officers were entranced and confused by the argument that had started. Bogo, however, was not. He let out a snort, and motioned towards Rhinowitz, who nodded his head.

"You still haven't told me thing one about this place, why should I even…" He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his back. His vision started to blur, and colors seemed to dance through the sky. He rubbed his eyes, and saw her, standing there.

In the midst of the colors that had taken over his vision, he could very clearly make out Judy, wearing a dress, and opening her arms towards him. "Judy…" He mumbled, taking a step, and falling flat on his face.

He had been hit by a tranquilizer dart, and had almost instantly passed out.

Judas looked down at the snoring fox, and then back at the crowd. There was no way he could get out of this one. Guess his rabbit luck had come to an end.

He held out his paws, and the cuffs slammed down.

* * *

Nick opened his eyes. It was dark, and his back was killing him. His vision hadn't cleared from his sleep, so everything was a blur of grey and orange for a moment. He rubbed his eyes, and saw Judas sitting above him on some kind of bench.

"Oh, I had a wonderful dream." He said, still a bit delirious. "Judy was there, and it was colorful and bright, and everything was perfect…"

"Were you locked up in prison?" The rabbit asked.

"What? Why would I be…" He jolted up, and looked at himself. He had been laying on hard, concrete ground, and was wearing an orange jumpsuit. He looked to his side, and saw the bars. "Well, been a while since I was last here." He sighed, standing up. He tugged at the suit. "And even longer since I've had to wear one of these things. Just as ugly as always."

"I think it goes nice with your accessories." Judas said in a mocking tone.

"Accessories?" Nick said back to him. "What are you…" He felt at his neck, there was something stuck to it. It was made of steel, smooth, completely rounded. He looked at Jude, he had the same ring around his neck as well.

"Alright, first things first, you need to stay-"

"AUUGH WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING!?" The fox yelled, and tugged at the ring, trying to pull it off with no success. "GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!"

Without warning, the necklace made a beeping noise.

Nick felt a horrible pain go through him. It started from his spine, and moved throughout the rest of his body. It was some kind of electric jolt, it hurt worse than a Taser, something he had personally experienced before, but he didn't react the same way.

Instead of falling over, unconscious, he had fallen over, completely conscious, but unable to move anything but his eyes. Completely frozen, and in horrible, horrible pain.

"…You need to stay calm." Judas finally finished. "The Tame Collars react to emotional outbursts like that. I'd say the first one's the worst, but then I'd be lying."

"How long will I be like this?" The fox tried to ask, only for it to come out as a slight wheeze.

"You'll be back up in a few minutes, fox, don't worry." He assured, only to pause for a moment. "Maybe a half hour, I don't know, it varies."

The fox let out another wheeze.

About thirty minutes later, Nick had recovered. He sat next to Judas, and the two began to discuss things.

"Can you tell me why these things are needed?" The fox asked, tugging at the collar again.

"Allegedly, it's to 'keep predators under control'." He emphasized his point with air quotes, a mocking tone of voice, and an utter revulsion to the words coming out of his mouth. "But it's really just about one thing…"

There was a moment of silence as the two stared at each other. Judas motioned his hand, asking the fox to continue.

"…And that would be?"

"To keep the prey rich and the preds poor, of course!" He finished. "Its been like this since before I was born."

"But… why?" Nick asked. "Predators can control themselves, we've evolved past harming others."

"You know that, and I know that, and the mugs in charge know that," He started, growing a bit angrier with each second. "But the public doesn't know that! It's all a conspiracy, all to keep the prey in charge."

"Wait, wasn't Zootopia founded by predators?" Nick said, confused. "Wasn't it meant to be a place where everyone was equal?"

"It's amazing how good intentions can be made terrible." Judas sighed. "You ever hear the story about the guy who invented gunpowder?"

Nick shook his head.

"Gunpowder was made for fireworks. It was meant to be a way to entertain." Judas explained. "Then, some mammal realized that it worked pretty well for shooting things, and suddenly it's a tool of war." He turned and stared the fox directly in the eyes. "Corruption stretches far and wide, Nicky. That's how its always been."

Nick fell silent for a moment.

"So, the idea is basically…" Nick gulped. "Keep the public afraid and complacent, so the mayor remains in power?"

Judas nodded. "That's Mayor Swinton's entire plan, that's been all of them's plan for over one hundred years. Because…"

"Fear always works." The two of them said simultaneously. They looked at each other.

"Where did you…?"

"I've had a run in with corruption too, my friend." Nick stated. "I had to deal with someone like that too. She was the mayor for a bit too." He thought for a second. "I guess this is what Bellwether wanted."

"Wait, Bellwether?" Judas said, a smirk growing on his face. "You mean, Dawn Bellwether?"

"Yes, I mean Dawn Bellwether."

"You mean pred rights activist and current fugitive Dawn Bellwether? That Dawn Bellwether?"

Nick's ears perked up. "Wait, what?" He said, confused. He smacked himself, duh, alternate reality mumbo jumbo. "Sorry, MY Bellwether was a psychotic jerk who set up a conspiracy to take over Zootopia involving framing predators, and also tried to get me to kill my friend."

"Yikes, that is the exact opposite of my Bellwether." Judas said. "She's employed with Mr. Big right now, and…"

He paused, eyes widening. He got up from his seat. "I completely forgot."

"About what?"

"Before all this mess started, I was supposed to deliver all that cash to Big!" He hit himself on the head. "It was going to be the big final hurrah for me and Nicky, we were gonna retire under Mr. Big's care! But now he probably thinks I'm a flake, a traitor for not showing up."

"Hey, here's something I've been meaning to ask," Nick started. "Who are you, exactly?"

"Judas Hopps, professional thief."

"Yes, I know that." He groaned. This guy was almost as much as a smart aleck as he was. "I mean who were you before that? You told me about Nicole, and I told you about myself, so tell me who you are!"

He stood there, silent for a moment.

"I didn't exist before this."

Nick glared at him in confusion. "And that means…?"

He turned towards the fox, slowly, menacingly. "That rabbit is gone. They've been gone for a long time."

Nick backed into the wall, a bit uncomfortable. "Alright, you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

Judas quickly sprung back, and clapped his paws together. "Alright, now it's time to plan our big breakout!"

"Oh, you can't be serious."

"Please," Jude scoffed. "I've gotten out of worse prisons than this."

"Yeah, which prison is this, exactly?" Nick asked.

"Y'know, Elkatraz."

"There is literally no prison worse than Elkatraz, you know that, right?"

"Boy, have you got a lot to learn."

* * *

"What do you mean Koslov's dead!?"

"Shot through the heart!? Was there a bullet?"

"Literally shot through the heart? Like, it went right through it?"

"The limo's been destroyed!? How bad is it?"

"Literally sliced to pieces. Are you sure you're using that word right?"

"Oh, you are."

"Is there any sign of Nicole or that Judy rabbit?"

"A destroyed wall? Burn marks!? Footprints!?"

"I don't care, just find out if they died or not! I can't have someone like Nicole disappearing on me again, not permanently, at least."

"Alright. Alright. Love you too."

She hung up the cellphone, and placed it on the desk. Koslov had been murdered by some unknown hands, in an almost completely impossible fashion. Nicole and the rabbit had vanished, and the only traces were of them were footprints and a scuffle that somehow resulted in property damage.

The sheep took out a piece of chewing gum, and popped it into her mouth, where she began chewing vigorously. Something strange was going on. She'd need to talk to some contacts, figure out whether or not this had to do with them or not.

Bellwether took a deep breath, making sure not to swallow her gum. The signs of the struggle showed advanced technology, she was fairly certain that they hadn't gotten access to things like that yet. That had calmed her down a bit.

Suddenly, her phone range again.

"Hello? Oh, Simon, what's going on?"

"Wait, Judas showed up? He's in prison? Well, get him out of there, I need to talk to him!"

"Wait, Elkatraz?"

She sighed, and pondered for a moment. "Alright, we can work something out. It might take a while, though."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14 – Calendar Girl**

"Judy! Judy!"

The rabbit opened her eyes, and saw a fox looking down at her. "Nick…?" She said, weakly.

"Sorry, just Nicole."

Judy jolted up, and looked around. They were in an alleyway, somewhere in Savannah Central. "We need to tell Bogo about this." She said, trying to stand up. As she got up, she felt a sharp pain through her leg, and fell to the ground.

"You okay?" Nicole asked. Judy rolled over, and looked at her leg. It was her wounded leg, which, by this point, still hadn't completely healed.

She thought she had gotten over it after the therapy, but it had always bugged her. "I think my leg gave out." She said, trying to hold back the pain. "I hurt it last year, and I guess the stress of all that caused it to…" She grunted a bit. "You need to go tell Bogo about what's happening."

"Forget the chief. We're getting you to a hospital." Nicole said, lifting the rabbit onto her back.

"No, we need to tell him!"

"And you really think he'll believe us?" Nicole responded, as she started down the alley. "Like anyone would believe that alternate universe crap without seeing it themselves!"

"Well, can we at least not go to a hospital?" She asked. "After what happened last time, I'm kind of terrified."

"Yeah, what exactly happened to you there?" Nicole asked. She was still walking through the alley, struggling a bit with the rabbit's weight… and what seemed to be some injuries of her own.

"I can't remember much, but there were…" She tried to think back, but it had become somewhat of a cloud after she entered that door. "There were monsters."

"Normally," Nicole started, as they stepped onto the sidewalk. "I would scoff at that and say you're crazy, but after all that, that sounds completely sensible."

"Oh my god!"

The two turned to look down the street, watching as a grizzly bear walked up to them. He looked worried. "Are you two alright?" He asked, leaning down. "Can I take you to a hospital?"

"No-"

Nicole quickly covered the rabbit's mouth. "Yes, that'd be lovely."

He grabbed the two, and gently lifted them up into the air. "My car's just over there."

He carried them over, and plopped them into the overly large back seat. "What's with us getting driven to hospitals by bears?" Nicole asked quietly. Judy shrugged in response.

The bear started the car up, and started driving. "So, I wouldn't suppose you two were injured in the accident last night?"

"Accident?" Both said, simultaneously.

"What kind of accident?" Judy asked, a bit worried.

"Gas leak at an apartment, a few mammals got killed, including an officer." He explained.

Judy hoped it wasn't someone she knew.

"No, we were in a much weirder accident." Nicole explained. She gave an excuse story, involving a gang of rhinos with bats, stolen property, and a wagon.

It sounded exactly like something Nick would come up with.

"That certainly is weird." The bear chuckled. "I have another question, what's that thing around your neck?"

Nicole felt at the collar. "It's, uh…" The confidence she had from the story disappeared. "I don't want to talk about it."

The car fell silent for a moment. "There's a while before we get to the hospital, want me to turn on the radio?"

"It's your car, you can do whatever you want."

He flipped on the radio. "Today, we take a moment of silence to honor a fallen hero of Zootopia." The rather serious sounding announcer said.

"Oh, this is about the accident. Want me to change it?"

"No!" Judy said. She was interested in it, she wanted to know who to miss. It was better to find out early than to figure it out later.

"We honor fallen officer Judas Hopps, who was killed in an explosion at the Grand Pangolin Arms."

Both Judy and Nicole's eyes went wide.

"Take us to the funeral." Judy demanded, flatly.

"Did you know him?"

"You can say that."

* * *

The car stopped, and the two hopped out. Judy's leg was feeling slightly better after the rest, but she could still only limp a bit.

"Are you sure you don't want to…?" The bear started, sounding concerned about the rabbit.

"Absolutely not." She responded, sounding a bit angry, but that might have just been from the pain that was still there. "This is important."

"Alright." He sighed. "The cemetery is just down the block." He drove off.

"So, what the hell is going on?" Nicole asked as they started towards the cemetery.

"Guess what they said was true." Judy sighed. "I don't exist anymore."

"I'm sure this is just a weird misunderstanding." Nicole tried to assure her, though she wasn't entirely sure about it herself. The rabbit returned a glare that reeked with both sadness and frustration.

They entered the cemetery through large gates. Fitting the savannah, it was mostly flat, but lined with tombstones of all shapes and sizes. Just looking around made the two feel nervous and uneasy. They spotted a large group gathered around. Police officers, rabbits, all surrounding a coffin.

The two headed into the crowd, and tried to blend in, not hard for Judy, considering most of the rabbits were her family, but a bit harder for Nicole. They watched on, as Clawhauser walked away from a microphone, bawling his eyes out. He must have just given a eulogy.

Bogo stepped up to the microphone next. He cleared his throat. "Officer Hopps was only with us a short time, but he was truly an excellent officer. It's always sad to see someone so young go, but…" he paused for a moment, and took a deep breath. "When you've been around as long as me, you start to become null to it." He looked on at the horrified crowd. "I've had to do a lot of eulogies, sue me."

"Good ol' Bogo." Judy said to herself. She looked around, and saw her parents, standing a distance away. Her nose began to twitch, and she ran off towards them.

"Judy, wait!" Nicole whisper yelled, following after her.

She ran up to them. "Hello!" She said, catching their attention.

"Oh, hello there." Her mother said, a bit solemnly. "Who are you?"

Judy's heart dropped to the ground. "I'm Judy H-"

"Judy Heathers!" Nicole interrupted. Judy gave a quick nod.

"I don't think Judas ever mentioned you, how did you know him?" Judy's father asked.

"We were, uh…" She tapped her paws together for a moment. "Acquaintances?"

"Me and Judy here worked at the market he went to." Nicole lied. "We saw him every once in a while, got to be friends, but not close."

"Well, we're sorry he left your lives as well." Her mother said, nearly about to burst into tears. "He was a really wonderful rabbit, wasn't he?"

"Wonderful, yeah." Nicole said, really, REALLY wanting to roll her eyes.

"I haven't seen his partner around here anywhere." Judy's father said, looking around. "Wonder what happened to him?"

"He's fine!" Judy blurted out. She quickly clamped her paws over her mouth. They looked at her, oddly. She uncovered her mouth. "I mean, I'm sure he's fine!"

She quickly fell silent as Nicole began to chat with her parents. She honestly couldn't believe what was happening. She didn't exist anymore. The thought rolled through her head, how did something like this happen? Sure, there was that weird alternate reality thing, but this was definitely her reality. As she thought more about it, she started to feel something she hadn't in a long while. Depression.

She hadn't felt like that since the pred scare. She really did not like feeling down, it was against her go getter nature. But now, she really couldn't feel anything but that. She glanced around. Most of the mammals at the funeral were ones she knew. Colleagues, family… but some she couldn't recognize. Some entirely new faces littered the crowd.

If she had been completely replaced by Judas, but nothing had really changed, that meant that she still helped everyone here. Her mood lifted a bit.

Then, something passed overhead.

At first, she thought it was a large bird, or a low-flying plane. But a few seconds later, it passed over her again. And then again.

She glanced up, and her eyes widened in horror.

It was a pure, black hovering object, like a bat but with an absolutely massive wingspan, and an elongated neck. A twinge of dread shocked through her system, and she realized something. It looked familiar.

She glanced around. Nobody seemed to notice it, not even Nicole, who was enraptured in a conversation with Judy's parents. The thing seemed to be deliberately hovering over the two, like a bird of prey. They needed to get out of there.

The rabbit glanced at her outfit. She was still in a hospital gown after all this time. Her ears perked up as she got an idea, something Nick himself would be proud of.

She hopped over and jabbed the fox in the shoulder. "Nicole, I think we should…" She let out a weak sounding cough. "I think we should head back to the hospital now."

"Hospital?" Nicole said, confused. "I thought you said…" The rabbit gave her a quick glare.

"Oh, are you alright?" Bonnie asked, looking at the rabbit with a worried stare. It was the same kind of look she gave when Judy was little and got hurt.

"I got into an accident a few days ago." Judy lied, holding back tears. "I came out here for a bit to pay my respects."

"So that's why you're wearing a hospital gown." Stu said. "Pretty brave of you to come out here just for a friend."

She gave a quick nod. "I'm starting to not feel well again, so we should head back." The rabbit tugged on Nicole's shirt, and dragged her away. As they headed through the crowd, Judy gave her parents a wave.

"Judy, what the hell are you doing?" Nicole asked, a bit angry and confused.

"Saving our lives, that's what!"

"What are you-" Judy quickly pointed up and behind them as they continued to run. Nicole stopped for a second, and glanced behind her. She saw the flying thing, still chasing after them, and felt an instant, instinctual fear. She turned back around and ran after the rabbit. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING!?"

"I have no idea!" Judy replied back as they exited the graveyard field and entered the street. "All I know is that's what attacked me the night before all this started!"

"Are you kidding me!?"

The two quickly ducked into an alley at the other side of the road. The buildings were lined in a way that a creature that big couldn't swoop down on them. "Wish I was." Judy said as they backed into the wall. They watched as the thing glided over the building.

"Think it didn't see us run in here?" Nicole asked, hopeful.

They watched as it silently glided back, and flapped its wings, entering a slow descent. It landed on the roof opposite of the building they were next.

"Probably too much to hope for, huh?"

The thing's wings folded into its body, leaving it as sort of a lump with a long, headless neck coming out of the top. The neck twisted around, before pointing itself towards them. A red light blinked on, and blanketed them in its light.

" **ERROR. ANOMALIES DETECTED.** " It announced, it a horrific, metallic voice. The tone, to Judy's sensitive rabbit ears, sounded like claws on a chalkboard. The light shrunk down to a pinprick, and aimed directly at Judy's forehead. "DELETION REQUIRED." It announced, before pointing the light towards Nicole. " **OUT OF PLACE BEING. WILL RETURN AFTER DELETION.** "

"Deletion sounds bad." Judy said. "We should probably run."

So, they did, quickly bolting off around the back of the building. The things gaze followed them as they hid around the bend. "That thing's too big to fit down here." Nicole said, with a sigh of relief. "We should be completely fine!"

Judy peered around the corner. She didn't feel entirely safe. She watched as the thing let out a series of beeps from the rooftop. "CONFIGURING…" It let out in its horrendous voice. Multiple thin, black appendages burst from its lumpy form, and wriggled around. The rabbit's eyes widened.

She glanced over to the other side of the alley. It was a dead end. "We need to run."

"Why?"

They heard steps above them, and glanced over to the wall. It was climbing down the wall. The thing had completely changed appearance, having become long, with an uneven number of long, thin legs coming out of its body. Its neck was still elongated and flexible, as it shined the red light down on them.

Without a word, the two bolted off, back into the street. They could hear the thing stomping after them. Nicole glanced around the street as they ran. Not a single animal there was reacting to the horrific monster chasing them.

That was certainly odd.

They continued dashing down the street, not bothering to turn around. The thing's red light still shined over them, meaning it was still there. "So, do you have a plan!?" Nicole yelled at the rabbit.

"I'm too terrified to come up with a plan!" She yelled back. "We need to get one eyed and dangerous off our trails first!"

"I think I might have an idea!" Nicoles responded, as she saw a yellow taxi closing in on them.

She grabbed the rabbit by the arm, and hoisted her into a grip. "Oh god you're going to get us KILLED!" Judy yelled as they ran towards the taxi.

The driver of it freaked out, and tried to slow down, but it had gotten too close. They leaped out of the way as the taxi skidded towards the monster. Hitting the ground, they watched as the creature's limbs extended, pushing its body upwards. The taxi skid to a halt directly beneath it.

"What the fuck are you two doing!?" The driver yelled, getting out of the car. He was a very angry, very large pronghorn. As he stomped over to them, a crowd started to form around them. The thing delicately placed its legs through thin spaces between the mammals, and stared down at them with it light.

They were trapped, and utterly terrified.

"But the…" Judy got up, and pointed at the thing. "The monster!"

The entire crowd seemed to stare at her in confused bewilderment. Nicole watched as the thing side stepped through the crowd. It seemed to be trying to find an angle of some kind. Then it hit her.

"I'm really sorry about my friend." She said, trying to sound calm, despite the terror beast surrounding them. She quickly pulled Judy to her side. "She's on some pretty heavy medication. She ran out of the hospital and I've been chasing her all day."

"What!?"

"Quiet." She snapped. "We really have to head back now, sorry for any inconvenience." She quickly pulled the rabbit onto her back, and ran off.

"HEY!" The pronghorn yelled, moving through the crowd. "I'M CALLING THE COPS ON YOU!"

Judy glanced back, and watched as the thing stepped through the crowd, and into the street. It shrunk back down to its already massive size, and continued to chase after them.

"Aren't I slowing you down?" She asked the fox. "I'm fine, I can run on my own."

"Don't worry!" Nicole said, clearly out of breath. "It's gonna be fine!"

"I don't believe you!"

The two ran into another alley, hitting a dead end. "Oh great, we're gonna die!" Judy cried out as she watched the thing approach them, its eye lighting up the dark alley.

"Watch this!" Nicole said, spinning around to face the creature. "HEY! ONE EYED AND UGLY!" She yelled. "TRY AND KILL US NOW!"

The thing approached, and seemed… confused. It stretched its neck around them, peering from all angles. It let out a mechanical crackling noise, seemingly out of frustration.

"What's happening?" Judy questioned.

"Well, that thing wants to kill you, but it doesn't want to kill me." Nicole started to explain as the thing climbed up onto the walls. "So, if we're close together, it'd have to kill both of us, which it can't do!"

"That's pretty slick, Nick… Nicole."

"We can work on that later."

"So, now what are we supposed to do?" Judy asked. "Do you just carry me around everywhere?"

"Uh…"

"And what about the police?" She continued. "They're gonna be after us, and you carrying me around is going to slow us down if we ever need to run from them!"

"I'm part of a master criminal duo, Judy!" She responded. "I've been avoiding the police for years!"

"Well, what if we have to go to the bathroom?"

"Alright, that's something we're going to have to figure out quick." Judy rolled her eyes.

"I have a feeling this thing isn't going to give up until I'm dead." Judy continued, eyeing the monster circling them helplessly. "So, we need to figure out how to get this to work."

"Don't worry, I'll figure something out." Nicole assured her. "I'm pretty clever, you know."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15 – Fontanelle**

"Alright, that should be everything…"

The panther looked out from the building's roof. He had been working incredibly hard to fix the chaos Coyote had caused. He had managed to fix all the anomalies created by the Cleaners, and any residual ones from him messing around.

"That guy is a real pain." He said to himself, loosening up his back. "Has all the fun, I handle the clean-up. Guess he is a real trickster."

"Chronos."

A shiver ran up his spine, making fur stand on end. It sounded like one of the Elders, a horrifying angelic tone that mortal ears couldn't hope to comprehend. Technically, it wasn't speaking English, but he could still understand it. He slowly turned around, and faced the being. Thankfully, it had just been a Messenger. He was worried it had been one of the actual Elders.

Messengers came in many forms and sizes, but his Elders preferred to communicate in the form of a robed being with a floating cuckoo clock as a head. Its robes were blue, and had thin, metallic arms coming from the elongated sleeves. The head, as a clock, was eyeless, and the arms pointed towards the exact time it was now. Around 8:30. However, instead of numbers on the clock face, it showed a series of arcane symbols that glowed whenever it spoke.

He bowed down to the Messenger. "Elders, why have you come to see me?" he asked, not looking up.

"Chronos." It repeated. Whenever it spoke, the cuckoo clock door on its head would open, revealing a small megaphone from which its voice came out. "We have terrible news."

He jolted his head up. "If this is about the anomalies, I've fixed them all, I didn't mean to-"

"Calm yourself, child." The Messenger stated. "We are aware that none of this is your fault. The problem comes from Coyote himself."

"Coyote?" Chronos said, a bit confused. "What's he done?"

"Your brother has created mass disturbances throughout a number of timelines." The Messenger continued. "The number of anomalies created threaten to destroy everything, and the Cleaners are too few in number to deal with them all."

"So, you need my help?" He asked.

"Correct."

"And, that means, I get to use it?"

The Messenger fell silent. "The council will consider it." It finally said after around a minute.

As the horn went back into its wooden skull, the clock hands began spinning. As they spun, everything began to change. Chronos looked around, watching as the city collapsed, was rebuilt, and then finally eradicated for good. Thousands of years past in only a few seconds. It was something he was used to at this point.

There were twelve Elders of time in the council. During meetings, only one of them got to speak per hour. Like any council, there were disputes, and one hour in god time is not a lot. They required millions of years to fully consider anything.

The clock hands stopped, and the world had become a barren wasteland. "We have reached our conclusion."

Chronos gulped.

"We have decided to give you it."

He sighed in relief. The megaphone zipped back into the Messenger's head. The arcane symbols lit up, various colors of blue, including a few unable to be seen by mortals. The door opened, a small claw clinging onto a blue crystal.

Chronos took a deep breath, and grabbed it gently with both his paws. The Time Crystal.

It was the most valuable item in his pantheon. A crystal capable of reshaping time itself. Its power was usually only limited to the Elders themselves, but on a few occasions, its arcane power had been given to their disciples.

He was blessed to even be seeing it, let alone touching it.

"Thank for this, my Elders." He said, graciously. "I promise I will fix everything."

"Before you get ahead of yourself." The Messenger stated. "We have one last piece of information to give you."

He nodded, and listened.

"You must find the outliers. The ones lost to time and space."

"Find the fox and the rabbit."

* * *

What did he want this time?

The trickster god snapped his claws, clearing the wall of everything, including his incredibly egotistical paintings. It was completely flat now, nothing but white.

With a devastating crack, his arm dislocated from the shoulder, extending out a bit. It didn't hurt, not just because he'd done it a bunch. He reached the extended, crooked arm upwards, and dug his claw into the wall, dragging it around in a massive circle. The arm quickly retracted back its normal size with another crack.

Here came the worst part of it.

He gripped at his paw, and in a swift motion, tore it off. Now that was something that felt unpleasant. He tossed the paw aside, and slammed the stump into the wall, drawing a series of arcane symbols with his blood.

As soon as he finished, another paw grew back in place, forming back layer by layer. He looked back at the drawing, which began to spin around, the red blood turning black. Soon, all that was left was a black void.

A doorway.

He stepped through the doorway, which lead to a massive flight of stairs. He walked down it for a few moments. Aside from the grey stairs, the entire place was pitch black. There didn't seem to be any light source that made the stairs visible, however.

He reached the bottom of the stair, leading to a pitch-black room with a grey floor. The entire thing was a perfect square. On the back wall, or what he guessed was a wall of some kind, was the same symbol he had drawn, only it was moving.

In the middle of the room was a grey pedestal, with a green crystal floating above it.

"Yo, C-dawg, my main inter-dimensional trickster god!" The crystal said in a very relaxed tone. Every time it spoke, it lit up. "You got my message?"

"Its hard not to notice when the entire place starts shaking and the walls start whispering the words of the damned."

"Great! I just wanted to let you know how great a job you're doing." It said. "The more you break the universe, the closer I am to being free, and the closer you are to absolute godhood!"

"Yes, I know that." Coyote dismissed. "How long until you finally get out of there?"

"Well, if everything goes to plan, like, a day!" The crystal said, cheerfully. "Though, that depends on you."

"What do you need me to do?"

"As a being aware of everything happening at this moment, I've found out something great!" It explained. "It seems the Time Crystal's been introduced to a certain timeline you've been fucking around with!"

"Wait, the Tim Crystal?" Coyote said, confused. "Why do you need the Time Crystal, you already have…"

"You do want to become absolute god soon, right? So, you better get me that Time Crystal."

"How am I supposed to get the Time Crystal!?" Coyote asked. "The Time Elders will kill me!"

"Don't worry, man, I've figured it all out!" The crystal started. "A friend of yours has the crystal. He's going after the fox and the rabbit. You need to get the OTHER fox and rabbit."

"Listen, I've had enough foxes and rabbits for a life time, why would-"

The ground suddenly began shaking, an incomprehensible language began emitting from… somewhere. The crystal turned entirely black, smoke beginning to flow from it. A thunderous voice roared as the crystal glowed red.

" **YOU WILL FOLLOW MY COMMANDS, OR I WILL REDUCE YOU TO A SINGLE CELLED BEING** "

Suddenly, everything had gone back to normal.

"Oh, sorry for that, lost my cool a bit." The crystal apologized. "Listen man, I know what you've been through, but the fox and the rabbit would be excellent bargaining tools."

"What does that mean?" Coyote asked, his heart racing.

"Trade the fox and the rabbit for the crystal. That time disciple is far too caring for his own good."

"Alright, got it." Coyote said. "I'll have my evil minion guys go and get them."

Just before Coyote could head up the stairs, he was interrupted.

"One more thing," The crystal said. "You know that whole thing about having to cut off your hand to come here? That was a joke. You just need some blood. I don't want to see you go through that every time I want to see you, its gonna start getting weak."

The coyote growled, and exited.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16 – A Matter of Trust**

Nick wasn't sure there was a way to make prison time any worse, but he had found it.

Attach a death collar to everyone's necks.

This hadn't affected the prison in a way he would've expected, though. Usually prisons were rowdy places full of assholes picking on other assholes. Places he generally tried to stay out of, considering his small stature compared to a lot of big time criminals.

But in this… world, he guessed, everything was very… complacent.

Everyone did as they were told, every day, at every hour. Get out of bed, get food, etcetera, etcetera. Most of the prisoners weren't even real criminals, either. He had asked around, and a large portion of them were locked up just for going out in public without their tame collars on. Apparently, that was a crime punishable by two years of jail time, even if it was just someone forgetting it at home.

Of course, all of these prisoners were predators.

You'd expect the prey to be more rowdy, due to them usually being larger, as well as not being the ones forced to wear the collars. You'd be wrong. The threat of death made everyone complacent in this.

The prison itself seemed soul-sucking on its own. When he had been in Elkatraz before, it had been a very state of the art place. This Elkatraz was bare bones, with only the bare necessities needed for the prisoners to live, and very little staff.

Speaking of, the staff were also the worst. The meanest bunch of police officers he'd ever seen. Every day he'd see at least one prisoner getting harassed by them.

The entire ordeal had seemed to drain Nick's own will.

But it didn't seem to effect Jude.

Throughout the last two weeks, Jude had been working on a plan to escape. According to him, he had done this many times before, and it had worked every time.

"Me and Nicole do this every time, it'll work." He'd say, every time he updated the fox.

Well, he wasn't Nicole.

Well, technically he was, but he wasn't.

Whatever.

The fox poked at his food with the fork. Food might have been too kind of a word. It was a lumpy, red substance that they called "The Special". It was edible, but only just. It was also the most appetizing thing on the menu by a depressingly large margin.

Jude sat next to him, the same lump on his tray. "The plan's almost ready." He whispered. "I'll give you the details when we head back to the cell." He had been incredibly secretive about the plan, working on it behind Nick's back and never saying a word.

In fact, Jude had barely talked to him this entire time. When he asked about his conspiracy theories, he wouldn't respond. Wouldn't respond to any questions, actually. He really wasn't a good tour guide.

Nick didn't say anything in response, simply deciding to pick at his food. His ears perked up as he heard two prisoners talking about something at the table behind them.

He didn't turn around to look, so he didn't know what species they were.

"You hear about what happened a while ago?" Said one voice, who sounded a bit gruff.

"About what?" Said the other, who sounded like a smaller animal. High pitched.

"The hospital attack." The first voice said. "Happened two weeks ago."

"Was it a terrorist attack?" The other voice asked.

"Nobody knows." The first voice said. "They found everybody dead, chopped up into pieces, locked up in a room. An officer got killed too, he was a skeleton when they found him."

"How long was he in there?"

"Five minutes."

Nick shuddered in his orange jumpsuit. An entire hospital, patients and staff, killed through unknown means. That sounded like something strange, and if it was something strange, there was a chance it was related to Coyote.

The bell rung, signalling everyone to go back to their cells. Everyone followed, again, almost unnervingly complacent.

* * *

Judas stood in the middle of the cell, looking out through the bars. It was almost midnight, which means no guards would be around. Perfect time to explain his escape plan.

"Alright." He started, turning to the fox, who was sitting on the lower of the beds. "Here's the plan."

"No."

"First we…" The rabbit turned back to him. "What?"

"I said 'no'."

"The rabbit glanced around, absolutely dumbfounded by Nick's response. "Don't you wanna get out of here!?"

"Of course I do." He said. His voice was rather solemn. "But I don't want your help."

"Wilde, I'm your only chance of getting out of here." He said. "You've never been to this prison before, I have. You need to trust me."

"Yeah, that's the problem." He said, laying down on the bed. "I have even less reason to trust you than I do a number of other criminals I know."

"Why can't you trust me?"

"Because I don't know who you are." He said, rolling over to face the rabbit. "You haven't given me any details about your life. I just need something."

"You want to know something about me…?" He clenched his paw tight, and let out a deep breath. "Move over."

The fox sat up, and slid over a bit, the rabbit hopping up and sitting next to him.

"It started back when I was little. Around eight or nine." He started. "I used to live out in Bunnyburrow, but I always wanted to get a job at Zootopia, since… you know the whole deal, be what you wanna be thing."

The fox nodded. So far, his story was sounding remarkably similar to Judy's.

"I wanted to prove that I wasn't just a bunny, you know?" He fell down to the bed as he continued. "But everywhere I went, no matter how much I tried, nobody could accept what I wanted to do."

"What did you try?" Nick asked. "Police work?"

"No, police stuff was always more Nicole's thing." He continued. "I just wanted something where I could prove myself, be what I wanted to be."

"So, something a bit more dignified than a McPawnald's cashier."

"Yeah, exactly."

"You never got a job because you're a rabbit?" Nick asked.

"That's part of the reason." The fox looked at him. "But that's not important right now. I tried out everything I possibly could, but I was never accepted. So, I decided to do the one thing I could."

"Become a thief?"

"Its not just 'being a thief', Wilde." He jolted up. "It's the concept of it. A rabbit becoming a major threat. I wanted to prove everyone that judged me wrong. And it worked."

"Huh." Nick said. "So, how'd Nicole get involved in your… work?"

"I met her one day when she was working." He started. "It was kind of… well…"

"Love at first sight?"

Judas laughed. "I suppose that's a way to put it. So, we became a duo, and started doing heists. It was all working out great, but then I realized something."

Nick looked at him. His face had turned sullen.

"I realized I didn't want her to get hurt." He admitted. "The heist we did before all this started was supposed to be our last one. We were going to retire, head out to the boonies and live a quiet life with new identities."

"Sounds like you really care about her." Nick said.

"Probably as much as you care about your Hopps."

"That might be a bit of an exaggeration."

Judas gave him a glare. He could see right through the fox's denial.

He quickly let out a sigh. "I never really get to let anything out." Judas started. "I mostly keep it bottled up. I haven't even told Nicole how much I care for her."

"Because you never let them see they get to you, right?" Nick said.

The rabbit looked up at him, and quickly nudged his shoulder. "You know, maybe you and I aren't as different as I thought."

"Yeah." Nick quickly clapped his paws together. "So, what's the plan, boss?" He placed a paw on the rabbit's head ruffling his fur. He swatted at the fox, and got up.

"So, there's a ventilation shaft down the hall of the food court." He started to explain. "It leads directly to the outside. After we eat tomorrow, we'll sneak in through there and snatch a boat."

"Took you two weeks to come up with that?" Nick said with a laugh.

"I needed to scope the place out." He said. "Sometimes they add extra security, but they seem pretty lax this time. Must be because they thought I was dead."

"Are you absolutely sure this will work?" The fox asked.

"I know, it's a very bare bones plan, but trust me, it will work." The rabbit reiterated. "I've done this at least three times before."

"Okay, how exactly do we steal a boat?"

"Guards leave the keys in the boat house." Jude said. "We have to do this early in the morning though, so we better get some sleep."

"You got it, boss." The fox laughed. "You want top or bottom bunk today?"

"Top would be nice."


End file.
